
CopiglitW. 



COPWIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 

Eastern District 

OF 

Brooklyn 

WITH 

irilu6tration6 anO /llbapg 

BY 

EUGENE L. ARMBRUSTER 



"Remove not the ancient landmark, which th}' fathers 
have set."— Prov. XXII.. 28. 



jS/ 



NEW YORK 

191 2 



Copyright, 1912 

BY 

EUGENE L. ARMBRUSTER 

Published May 7th, IQ12 



CCI.A314404 



Contents 

Page 

Introduction 9 

Nassau River 11 

The Original Plantations 18 

Town Records 21 

Bushwick Village 27 

Greenpoint 31 

Cross-Roads Settlement 33 

Williamsburgh 34 

The Bushwick and Ridgewood Sections 45 

Bedford 55 

Cripplebush 56 

East New York 56 

Beyond the Newtown Creek 63 

Bushwick Church 67 

Original Ecclesiastical Organizations 79 

Burying Grounds 85 

The Early Days of the Eastern District Schools: 

Bushwick Schools 88 

Williamsburgh and Greenpoint Schools 92 

Bedford School 97 

Wallabout School 98 

The Wyckoff Farm 99 

Roads and Transportations 102 

Police Force 107 

Fire Department 109 

Picnic Grounds 112 

Hotels 113 

The Press 114 

Banks 115 

Peck Slip 115 

Statistics 117 

Wards ..... 119 



4 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Page 

Map Showing the Original Plantations 121 

Municipal Government 123 

Ridgewood Section in Queens Borough of To-day 125 

APPENDICES 

I. Indian Deed of Bushwick, 1638 129 

11. Governor Nicolls' Patent, 1667 130 

III. Governor Dongan's Patent, 1687 131 

IV. Muster Roll of Bushwick Militia, 1663 132 

V. Rate List of Bushwick, 1675 134 

VI. *' " " 1676 135 

VII. " " " 1683 137 

VIII. List of Men in Bushwick Who Took the Oath of 

Allegiance in 1687 138 

IX. Census of Kings County in 1698 139 

X. The Improved Lands in Bushwick, 1706 141 

XI. Bushwick Division of the Regiment of Militia in 

Kings County, 17 15 143 

XII. A List of all the Inhabitants, 1738 144 

XIII. A List of Slaves, 1755 146 

XIV. Taxable Valuation, Bushwick, 1805-1854 147 

XV. Taxable Valuation, WilHamsburgh, 1840-1854 148 

XVI. Laws Relating to WilHamsburgh 149 

XVII. The Solid Men of WilHamsburgh, 1847 153 

XVIII. Inscriptions on Tombstones in Original Graveyard, 

1861 155 

XIX, Inscriptions on Tombstones in Schenck Family 

Burial Ground, i860 156 

XX. Inscriptions on Tombstones in Bushwick Church 

Yard, 1880 i57 

XXI. Obsolete Street Names in Eastern District 158 

XXII. Origin of Some of the Street Names 172 

XXIII. Obsolete Street Names in East New York 174 

XXIV. The Ferries 1 77 

XXV. Notes on the Several Settlements 179 

XXVI. BibHography 188 



List of Illustrations and Maps 

Page 

Map of Williamsburgh Village, 1827 (folding). . .opposite page 34 

Map of Williamsburgh, 1845 (folding) opposite page 118 

Original Settlement, 1 660 14 

Map of Bushwick Village, 1660 16 

Town Dock 28 

Masters' Mill 29 

Duryea House 30 

Map of Town of Bush wick , . , 32 

Old Grand Street Ferry and Fountain Inn, 1797 35 

Junction of Broadway, Flushing Avenue and Graham Avenue 36 

Burr & Waterman's Block Factory 37 

Literary Emporium 38 

Phoenix Iron Works 39 

Terry's Iron Foundry 40 

Miller Homestead 41 

Remsen House 42 

A. & H. Kemp's Brick Block 42 

Boerum House 43 

Williamsburgh Gas Works 44 

Ferry Landing, Grand Street, 1835 44 

Suydam House 47 

South Bushwick Church 51 

Map of Ridgewood 53 

Van Nostrand Farm House 54 

The Last of the Lefferts Houses 55 

Schenck Homestead ■ 57 

Holder's Three-Mile House 59 

Howard's Inn .... 60 

View of Old Payntar House 66 

Block-House Erected in 1660 69 

Bushwick Church and Town House 71 



6 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Page 

Bushwick Church in 1850 74 

Dutch Reformed Church of Williamsburgh 80 

St. Mark's Church 82 

First Baptist Church of WiUiamsburgh 83 

Presbyterian Church of WiUiamsburgh 84 

The Devoe Houses and Part of Ancient Graveyard 86 

Bushwick District School No. 3 90 

District School No. 2 of Williamsburgh 91 

"3 " 91 

" 4 " 93 

Primary School No. i 94 

" " " 2 94 

" 3 95 

" " " 4 96 

Colored Public School 96 

Grammar School 97 

Wyckoff Homestead 99 

Northern Liberties Engine House no 

Williamsburgh Bell Tower in Flames in 

Peck Slip Ferry, New York, 1850 116 

Map Showing the Original Plantations 120 



PREFACE 

THE title of this book is "The Eastern District of 
Brooklyn," and the book contains a number 
of articles dealing with the past of the various neigh- 
borhoods within the present Eastern District. Some 
of these articles have appeared in the Brooklyn Daily 
Times. 

If a history of the City of New York will ever 
be written, its compiler will look around for historical 
matter relating to the old towns, now forming parts of 
the metropolis, and this book was written that the 
Eastern District of Brooklyn may be represented then. 

Its favorable situation was noticed bv Governor 
Kieft, and he acquired the land from the Indians at a 
time when New York City was confined to the south- 
ernmost end of Manhattan Island; and its great future 
was foreseen by the founders of Williamsburgh a 
century ago. 

Not every town on Long Island can be a next-door 
neighbor to Manhattan Island, but Nassau County is 
to-day as close to New York City as Kings County was 
then, and sooner or later Suffolk County will hold this 
same position. But in bringing far-off Suffolk closer, 
the Eastern District will gain, as it has gained so far, 
in this process. 

The 13th, 14th, 15th, i6th, 17th, i8th, 19th, 21st, 
23d, 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th Wards had a popula- 



8 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

tion in 1910 of 857,778. The Ridgewood section in 
Queensborough is to-day an integral part of the East- 
ern District, for the borough line can only be traced 
on paper, and thus the population of the Eastern Dis- 
trict is to-day close to the one million mark. 

It may be well to give here the history of the 
title of the book. The Eastern District was created 
when the consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsburgb 
and Bushwick took place, in 1855. It included Will- 
iamsburgb, Bushwick and North Brooklyn. The 
Western District included the remainder of the 
enlarged city. Between the Eastern District and the 
built-up part of the Western District lay the extensive 
region known as the 9th Ward, sparsely settled. The 
denominations Eastern and Western Districts were 
soon abolished, and gradually the 21st, 23d and 25th 
Wards were set off the old 9th Ward; and these three 
wards increased in population simultaneously with the 
Eastern District, and had at all times more interests in 
common with it than with the Western District. 

The 26th Ward was never a part of the Western 
District, but a town by itself until annexed in 1886 by 
the late City of Brooklyn. 

The annals of the City of Williamsburgb and of the 
towns of Bushwick and New Lots were closed when 
these communities became parts of the City of Brook- 
lyn, and no attempt has been made to deal with them 
after that period. 



INTRODUCTION 

THE following pages contain a series of sketches 
relating to the early days of the various localities 
that now constitute the Eastern District of Brooklyn. 
They also tell of the hardships and trials which the 
settlers had to endure until they could gain a perma- 
nent foothold in the territory around the Newtown 
Creek; and how, after several attempts had come to 
disastrous and disappointing ends, the village of Bos- 
wijck was formed. This was the first step in develop- 
ing this section of the metropolis. 

Adrian Block, a navigator in the service of the 
Dutch, had erected in 1613 a trading-post, consisting 
of four huts, on the island of the Manhattans across 
the river, which was later supplanted by a more sub- 
stantial structure, built upon an elevated point, that 
served as a storehouse and fort. Its south side faced 
the upper bay, where large black rocks were visible at 
low tide. Toward the north a lane led to a point on 
the East River, which had been found to be the most 
convenient for a ferry-landing to connect with the 
Long Island shore. This trading-post, and later 
the fort, was the only point from which the set- 
tlers could expect any assistance in case of an attack 
by their red-skinned neighbors, but as yet there had 
been no occasion to look for help, the white men and 
the red men lived in peace together. 



TO THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Director-General Willem Kieft purchased in 1638 
the territory of the later town of Bushwick from the 
Canarsee Indians for the West India Company, and 
" the new charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, " which 
was granted two years later, brought new settlers to 
the land on the Long Island shore of the East River. 
Kieft was the owner of a tobacco plantation on the 
west side of the island of the Manhattans, called by 
the Indians Sapohanikan, which means " over against 
the pipe-making place." On the opposite shore of the 
North River was Hopoakanhaking, /. ^., "at the 
tobacco-pipe-land " — the present Hoboken. To this 
point the Indians brought the peltries, which they col- 
lected in the interior, and hence conveyed them in 
their canoes to Manhattan Island, landing in a cove 
north of the Director's plantation. In an evil hour 
Kieft ordered some of his men to the tobacco-pipe- 
land and another band to the Indian village, Rechtauk, 
situated two miles north of the fort on the East 
River, — the present Corlear's Hook, — while both 
places were occupied by some fugitive Wesquaesgeek 
Indians, and had them cruelly slaughtered, men, 
women and children, under cover of night. When 
the savages found out that the white men had com- 
mitted the outrage, which they had first believed to be 
the work of an hostile Indian tribe, about a dozen of 
the neighboring tribes of River Indians rose up against 
them and attacked the several plantations. This took 
place in 1643. 



NASSAU RIVER 

Nassau River is the waterway first known as Mis- 
pat Kil and, more recently, as Newtown Creek. The 
usefulness of the river will be greatly enhanced in the 
near future by the construction of a channel through its 
entire length of a uniform width of one hundred and 
twenty-five feet and a depth of eighteen feet. But 
even at the present day its tonnage is greater than that 
of the Erie Canal or the Hudson River. Its length is 
about four miles, its natural depth is twelve feet at the 
mouth, gradually falling to four feet at the head of 
navigation. In the early days its shores presented a 
beautiful sight. In the background were the hills 
covered with trees. In the swamps below, the stream 
and its tributaries had their rise. Broadening on its 
way, the stream flowed quietly between wooded eleva- 
tions and further along through lowlands until it 
mingled its waters with the Salt or East River. A mile 
further up the East River, the tides from the east and 
west met, and the backing up of these tides caused the 
stream to overflow the marshes; and this fact led the 
Indians to name the waterway " Mispat " — that is, an 
overflowing tidal stream. 

In the neighboring forests the deer and the wolf 
had their habitations. On the head of the stream was 
the village and cornfield of a small band of red men, 
known as the Mispat tribe. Near its mouth a few 



12 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

adventurous Noormans had established themselves, 
clearing the land and trading with the Indians. 

In 1638 Governor Kieft purchased the land near 
the creek, and the new Charter of Freedoms and 
Exemptions, published two years thereafter, providing 
that "all good inhabitants were allowed to select 
lands and form colonies," attracted settlers to this 
neighborhood. Thus a small band of former residents 
of the Plymouth colony, under the leadership of 
the Rev. Francis Doughty, settled in 1642 near the 
Indian village. In the Indian uprising of the fol- 
lowing year, caused by a most barbarous act of 
the governor, the Mispat settlement, as many others, 
was laid in ashes and some of the settlers were 
killed, while others made their escape to the fort on 
Manhattan Island. After peace was restored several 
of the planters returned to the place. A new com- 
mander, Petrus Stuyvesant, took charge of the Dutch 
Colonies in 1647, and he employed every means to 
secure new colonists for the destroyed and deserted 
plantations. 

In 1655 the savages again became restless, and the 
settlers near Mispat Kil found it necessary for their 
mutual safety to abandon the exposed dwellings 
standing upon the several plantations and to remove 
their families and belongings to a central point, which 
could be more effectually defended. Thus they formed 
in the next spring a village upon an island situated in 
Mispat Kil, for which the Fiscal of New Netherland, 
Nicasius de Sille, had received a patent. They named 
the settlement New Arnheim, in honor of the native 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 3 

place of De Sille. The island was then known as 
Smith's Island, after an earlier resident, and its pres- 
ent name is Furman's Island or Maspeth Island. Here 
they were in a more secure position and the new set- 
tlement prospered. Still some of the farmers con- 
tinued to live upon their plantations. Eldert Engel- 
bertse, residing at an isolated place near the creek, 
with his wife, and two men employed by him, were 
murdered in 1659 by three Raritan Indians, who had 
become acquainted with the fact that there was some 
" wampum " in the house. 

While the site of New Arnheim, surrounded as it 
was by water, was well chosen for a place of refuge 
for a small band of settlers during trouble with the 
Indians, it was not the proper place for a village. So 
when in 1660 fourteen Frenchmen with an interpreter 
came before the governor to petition him for land on 
which to settle, Stuyvesant took them across the river 
and selected a plot of land between the Mispat Kil and 
Noorman's Kil (the later Bushwick Creek). In doing 
this he was no doubt guided by a personal interest. 
His own farm on the Manhattan Island side of the 
river extended from present Fourth Avenue to the 
East River shore, and the newly established settlement 
on the Long Island side was directly opposite his 
farm, the river flowing between the salt meadows of 
the two tracts of land. Thus he must have felt more 
secure from attacks by the Long Island Indians by 
having this out-post between them and his own farm. 
However, the land between the two creeks was an 
ideal location for a village site. Along the line of an 







SNW ■•■■.■■■■■•.-,v.--.i- 

km ®iiiiii 







THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 5 

old Indian trail a road was laid out in the centre of 
the village plot, which, in course of time, could be 
extended towards either creek. On both sides of the 
road the house-lots were laid out, twenty-two in num- 
ber, divided by lanes; in the rear of the house-lots 
were larger parcels, known as garden-lots. These 
house-lots and garden-lots were enclosed with pali- 
sades. Outside the stockade and extending to the 
creeks was the farm-land, cut up in long, narrow strips, 
in equal number with the house-lots. In the absence of 
roads, the farmers were thus enabled to move their 
crops in boats. To every house-lot in the village was 
attached the right to a certain part of the common 
lands or salt meadows. These meadows were taken 
wherever found, and in the following year the magis- 
trates petitioned for more meadow land for the use of 
additional settlers, and Governor Stuyvesant ordered 
the New Arnheim settlement to be broken up, being 
an obstacle to the growth of the new village of Bos- 
wijck, and the island was given to the latter. Boswijck 
was the name bestowed upon the place by the gov- 
ernor. This grant caused a legal fight, which was 
carried on for over a century between the towns of 
Newtown and Bushwick. In 1769 Smith's Island was 
ceded to Newtown, and other disputed lands, now 
forming the Ridgewood section of Queens County,, 
were also decided to be a part of the town of New- 
town. 

Near the Duryea house on Meeker Avenue, Hum- 
phrey Clay operated a ferriage across Newtown Creek 
as early as 1670. During the Revolutionary War 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 7 

British warboats sailed up and down the creek, carry- 
ing dispatches from Headquarters at Newtown; and 
■even during the War of 181 2 American gunboats 
patroled the creek. There was a primitive bridge 
further up the creek in the days when Clay's ferry was 
in existence, and after the War of 181 2 a bridge on 
piles was built on Meeker Avenue. In 1836 a new 
bridge was built on stone piers, in connection with a 
turnpike road; the toll on this bridge was "a penny," 
and was collected at a place near the Duryea house, 
hence the name, "Penny Bridge." In 1853 a ferry 
was established, running from East 23d Street, Man- 
hattan, to the Calvary Cemetery landing on Newtown 
Creek. 

At that time the creek, with the several gristmills, 
and the farms bordering thereon, differed in no way 
from the rural scenes, which are often seen as typical 
of Holland, except for the hills in the background. 
But since then the mills have vanished, and factories 
and coal yards have taken their places and commer- 
cialism in general, with no eye for landscape beauty, 
has taken hold of the territory. The water of the 
creek has been polluted to such a degree that the 
name of Newtown Creek has come into ill-repute, and 
it is well that the waterway, when cleansed and 
improved, will be known by the euphonious name of 
Nassau River. 



THE ORIGINAL PLANTATIONS 

The first settlers in the territory of the later town 
of Bushvvick seem to have been mostly Scandinavians; 
Hans Hansen, Cornells Jacobse Stille, Claes Carsten- 
sen, Jan de Zweed (the Swede), one Wilcox and 
Herry Satley. They were on the ground before the 
land was purchased from the Indians by the West 
India Company. 

The earliest recorded Indian deed for land to an 
individual in Kings County is the one to Jacob Van 
Corlear for " flats " in Flatbush and Flatlands in 1636; 
but the earliest recorded Indian deed for land in the 
county to the government, that is, the West Indian 
Company, was for the land between Brooklyn and 
Mespath — the territory of the later town of Bush- 
wick — dated August ist, 1638. 

The Company now issued patents to the settlers, 
who were in possession of tracts of land, as well as to 
newcomers, as may be seen from the following entry 
upon the Dutch records: " Divers freemen request by 
petition to the Council conveyance of the lands which 
they are cultivating at present. The request of the 
petitioners is granted on the condition that they shall, 
after the expiration of ten years from the commence- 
ment of their plantations, annually pay to the Com- 
pany the tenth of all the produce, which God shall 
bestow on their land. Also in future, for a house and 
garden a couple of capons yearly." 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 9 

Hans Hansen's land extended from the Kil of Joris 
Rapalie through a part of the towns of Brooklyn and 
Bushwick to the Newtown Creek. Along the river 
Cornells Jacobse Stille's land was patented to the then 
proprietor, Lambert Huybertse. The next plantation 
was Reyer Lambertse's; then came Claes Carstensen, 
the Noorman, and David Andriese. Between the two 
last named and Hans Hansen lay the land of Jan de 
Zweed, Between Bushwick Creek and Newtown 
Creek was the land of Dirck Volkertse, the Noorman, 
formerly Wilcox's plantation, and along the Newtown 
Creek toward Hans Hansen's land lay the land pat- 
ented to Gysbert Rycken and Abraham Rycken. 
These two plantations were probably never occupied 
by the patentees. Abraham Rycken leased some land 
in 1643 to one Hutchinson, but the land seems to have 
reverted to the West India Company on the ground 
that it was not continually under cultivation. Abra- 
ham lived in New Amsterdam, as is recorded in a 
document of 1642. He married a daughter of Hendrik 
Harmensen, a planter at the Armen Bouwerij, or Poor 
Bowery, in the town of Newtown, and received a 
patent for a plantation in that locality in 1654. Thus 
these lands of the Rycken brothers were vacant, when 
in 1660 a company of Frenchmen petitioned the gov- 
ernor for land for the site of a village, and the latter 
gave them the greater part of the tract. 

In a petition to the governor and council, made by 
some of the inhabitants of the village in 1663 regard- 
ing a fence, stretching from Newtown Creek to Bush- 
wick Creek, mention is made of the remnant of land 



2 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Still in possession of the company: "While there yet 
remains a small tract of the company's land, which 
would be included within that fence, etc." 

South of Hans Hansen's plantation the land was 
granted in 1661 to the villagers for common wood- 
land, and was known as the Boswijck Nieuw Loten, or 
the New Lotts of Bushwick. 

Across the Brooklyn line Joris Jansen de Rapalie's 
plantation, called by the Indians, " Rinnegaconck," 
extended from Wallabout Bay (originally Walboght, 
probably from wal, meaning rampart — protection from 
assault or danger; and boght — bay or gulf) south 
probably to Nostrand and DeKalb Avenues. He had 
purchased the land from the Indians in 1637, and 
received a patent for it in 1643. The Cripplebush 
patent, adjoining the Bushwick line, was granted in 
1654. The land south of the Cripplebush patent was 
patented to Elias Boudinet in 1708. Part of the land 
west of Boudinet's patent, between the Flatbush line 
and Rapalie's line was patented to ten settlers of the 
Wallabout region in 1661, and the southern-most part 
was used as common land by the inhabitants of the 
town of Brooklyn. 

By the division of all the common land of that 
town in 1690 this particular section was allotted to the 
residents of the Gowanis settlement. 



TOWN RECORDS 

In his history of Long Island, Thompson says 
" The increase of population in this neighborhood was 
so small as not to acquire a municipal character 
before the year 1648, at which time application was 
made to the governor for a patent or groundbrief. 
One was accordingly issued, under which the inhab- 
itants remained until the conquest of New Netherland 
in 1664." 

There is at this time no evidence that such a patent 
was issued in the old Dutch documents at Albany. 
The Bushwick town records, which were in existence 
at the time when Thompson compiled his history, have 
been destroyed since. 

When Bushwick became part of the City of Brook- 
lyn the records were, in accordance with an article of 
the charter of the enlarged city, deposited in the City 
Hall. They were sent there in a movable bookcase, 
which was coveted by some municipal officer, who 
turned its contents upon the floor, whence the janitor 
transferred them to the papermill. 

The older records had been kept in the Dutch 
language and were difficult to decipher; some, how- 
ever, had been translated by the late General Jeremiah 
Johnson, and these have come down to us. 

February 14, 1660, Peter Stuyvesant, Director- 
General, and his High Council, of New Netherland, 
ordain that the outside residents, who dwell dis- 



2 2 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

tant from each other, must remove and concentrate 
themselves within the neighboring towns, and dwell 
in the same, because we have war with the Indians, 
who have slain several of our Netherland people. 

February i6. As fourteen Frenchmen with a Dutch- 
man, named Peter John De Wit, their interpreter, 
have arrived here, and as they do not understand the 
Dutch language, they have been with the Director- 
General and requested him to cause a town plot to be 
laid out at a proper place, whereupon His Honor fixed 
upon the 19th inst. to visit the place and fix upon a 
site. 

February 19. On this day the Director-General 
with the Fiscal Nicasius De Sille and His Honor, Sec- 
retary Van Ruyven, with the sworn Surveyor, Jacques 
Corteleau, came to Mispat and have fixed upon a 
place between the Mispat Kil and Noorman's Kil to 
establish a village, and have laid out by survey twenty- 
two house lots, on which dwellings will be built. 

March 7. The first house being erected near the 
pond, William Traphagen with his family and Koert 
Mourison came to dwell in the same. Other houses 
were erected during the year. 

March 14, 1661. The Director-General visited the 
new village, when the inhabitants requested His Honor 
to give the place a name, whereupon he named the 
town "Boswijck." [From "bos," meaning a collec- 
tion of small things packed close together, and from 
" wijk " — retreat, refuge, guard, defend from danger.] 

At this time the order was renewed: " That all the 
citizens, who dwell within the' limits and jurisdiction 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 23 

of the town of Boswijck, and already have village-lots, 
shall remove to the same, according to the order of the 
Director-General," and it is added, "That all persons 
whatsoever who dwell outside of the village, attend 
to the danger they may be in, by remaining where 
they be." 

By order of the governor, six men were chosen by 
the people, from whom he selected three, viz. : Peter 
Jan DeWit, Jan Tilje and Jan Comlits, to whom he 
committed the provisional administration of the justice 
of the village. 

In May, 1661, the magistrates petitioned the gov- 
ernor for more meadow land for the use of new 
settlers, saying, "we have chosen ten men to make a 
search for more meadow land which, as far as we 
know, is not already disposed of by deed. There are 
only a few meadows for the use of the inhabitants of 
our village near their lands, but them they need them- 
selves, and we have no others; of which we have not 
informed them. But the aforesaid ten men explored 
the meadows, where every person mows, who arrives 
first — common meadows — viz. : near Smith's Island six 
morgen ; in the same neighborhood four morgen ; adjoin- 
ing the land of Eldert Engelbertse, who was killed 
by the savages, three morgen; near the two lots of 
Severy Oesis, who also was murdered by the savages, 
five morgen ; further toward the woods in Fresh Vleyen 
four morgen; — in all twenty-two morgen." As they 
said that it would be impossible for the new arrivals 
to reside in the village without obtaining the meadow 
lands, the request was granted, provided that these 



2 4 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

lands were not found to be included in any previous 
patent. 

In 1661 Stuyvesant ordered the New Arnheim set- 
tlement to be broken up, and in the next year even the 
deserted and decaying hovels there were ordered to be 
removed, to prevent their being occupied by any 
person, and the island was granted to Boswijck. 

In 1662, also, Hendrik Barent Smith, who still 
remained outside of the village, was ordered to remove 
to the latter within twenty-four hours, or else the 
magistrates were authorized to demolish his dwelling. 

The twenty-three inhabitants of the village, who- 
signed the petition to the governor in 1661 for meadow 
land, new roads, etc., must be considered the pioneers 
of the place. They were: Peter Jan de Wit, a Dutch- 
man, who emigrated in 1652, and had acted as inter- 
preter for the fourteen Frenchmen; Evert Hedeman,. 
from the land of Schouwenburg; Jan Willemse Yssel- 
stein, Jan Tilje, or Le Teller, a Frenchman; Ryck 
Lydecker (leidekker — slater), Hendrik Willemse Bak- 
ker (bakker — baker), Barent Gerretse, from ZwoU in 
Oberyssel; Jan Hendriksen, Jan Cornelissen de Zeeuw 
(de Zeeuw — the Zeelander), Barent Joosten, from Wit- 
mont in Emberland, a "ridder" or knight, emigrated 
in 1652, a man of means, who in later years sold to 
Albert Coertsen the Anthony Janse de Sale plantation 
in Gravesend, of two hundred acres, for $15,000; 
Frangois Du Puy, from Calais in France; Johannes 
Casparse, Francisco de Neger, Pieter La Mothe, 

Charles Fonteyn, Herry, a Frenchman; Jean 

Catjouw, a Frenchman; Jean Maliert, a Frenchman; 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 25 

Hendrik Janse Grever, Gysbert Thonissen, Jost Cas- 
parse, Willem Janse Traphagen, a Frenchman; Dirck 
Volkertse, a Norwegian or Noorman, a carpenter by 
trade, who had obtained a patent in 1645 ^^^ twenty* 
five morgen on the East River and Mispat Kil, which 
he sold in 1653 to Jacob Hay, but still resided in 
Boswijck. 

The Dutch settlements, in general, began by indi- 
viduals settling in a certain neighborhood, each one 
by himself, and as they grew more numerous, the gov- 
ernor appointed magistrates with more or less power, 
as he judged proper, without any uniformity as ta 
their number or title of office. Their duty was to see 
that the fields were fenced and the fences kept in 
repair; to open a common road through the settlement;^ 
to erect a blockhouse or other public building; to 
attend to the division of the lands, that were held in 
common; provide for the security of the settlement; 
and decide all differences. Cases in which sums of 
over fifty guilders were in dispute could be appealed 
to the Director-General and Council. As noted in the 
town records above, Stuyvesant appointed three mag- 
istrates for the village in 1661, and thus Boswijck 
attained the dignity of a town. On another visit in 
1663 Stuyvesant gave orders to appoint a Town Mili- 
tia to keep a close watch on the new settlement. A 
company of four divisions was organized. Each divi- 
sion, consisting of ten men, was on duty, alternatel)^ 
every night, to guard the village. Ryck Lydecker 
was made the captain. 

By the conquest of 1664 Long Island was incor- 



26 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

porated with the colony of New York, and became 
subject to the Duke of York. 

Richard Nicolls, governor under the Duke of 
York, convened a meeting on the first of March, 1665, 
at Hempstead Plains, of two deputies from every town 
on Long Island, and two from Westchester, for the 
purpose of organizing the government, settling town 
limits, etc. , 

Bushwick was included in the West Riding of 
Yorkshire. 

The several towns were recognized, and were 
required to take out patents from the governor for the 
lands which they had purchased within their limits. 

From then until 1690 Boswijck, Breuckelen, Mid- 
wout, Amersfoort and New Utrecht constituted a sepa- 
rate district under the appellation of the " Five Dutch 
Towns." A register was purposely commissioned by 
the governor for this district to take the proofs 
of all documents that were required to be recorded 
at the "Office of Records" in New York City, 
where certificates were issued with the seal of this 
office. By an act of 1692 this power was vested in the 
governor or a delegate appointed by him. 

Thompson says: " Many defects had been discov- 
ered in the charter granted by Stuyvesant, the people 
of Boswijck, at a town-meeting assembled for the pur- 
pose in 1666, appointed a committee to wait upon 
Governor Nicolls ' to solicit him for a new patent 
and to request that the boundaries of the town might 
be more expressly defined and set forth therein.'" 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 27 

This patent was obtained on the twenty-fifth of 
October, 1667. Governor Thomas Dongan issued 
another town patent in 1687, and Governor Cornbury 
one dated 1708. 

The town of Bushwick was recognized by the Laws 
of the State — general act — on the seventh day of 
March, 1788. 

BUSHWICK VILLAGE 

" Het dorp," or the village plot, was the point from 
which the Eastern District of Brooklyn has spread 
further and further, and of all its territory this spot 
retains most of its original simplicity. Here the 
graveyard of the early settlers was laid out, but has 
long since disappeared; later the church was erected. 
Across the Woodpoint road stood the Town House, 
which is supposed to have been the first edifice reared 
in the county for the exclusive use of town govern- 
ment, and in the rear of the church was the school- 
house. Froni here the road led to ' ' het hout punt, " or 
the Woodpoint on Newtown Creek, where was the 
town dock from which the farmers loaded their pro- 
duce from wagons to sail or row boats, and conveyed 
them to the city market. From the Woodpoint road 
branched off another road leading to Noorman's Kil, 
where Pieter Jansen Trinbol in 1662 "had made a 
concentration of four families," so that the villagers 
of Bosvvijck might bring their canoes and " schuiten " 
(boats, barges) to his landing. 

A third branch of the road, "the mill road," led to 
the mill on the head of Newtown Creek. The first 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 29 

mill structure was erected by Abraham Jansen Tim- 
merman (Timmerman — carpenter) in 1664, and a mill 
was still standing on that point, near Metropolitan 
Avenue, close to the tollgate, a. half a century ago. 
This was known then as Masters' Mill, and prior to 
that as Luqueer's Bushwick Mill. 

The Kijkuit Lane meandered from the village to 
the Kijkuit on the strand. 




MA5TEK5'Mil-L ON 5\TB of ORICIMAL 
BU5MWICK MILL . 

1850 

The Mansion house stood on the Woodpoint road. 
Its site is now part of the roadway of Monitor Street, 
near Egert Avenue, close to the junction of Meeker 
Avenue. The house was erected by Theodorus Polhe- 
mus, who was born in 1719, and came from Flatbush 
to Bushwick. He died in 1781, and his children sold 
the house with its beautiful grounds, barns, and out- 
houses to Peter Wyckofl. It became the residence of 
the Wyckoff family for some years. The house was a 



30 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



large frame structure, and was half a century ago used 
as a tavern, and was still known as the Mansion house 
or Manor House. On the grounds ball players gath- 
ered from every-where, and also "target shooters" 
had their games. 

The Van Ranst house stood on present Withers 
Street, near a branch of the Bushwick Creek. 




fOoT OF MEEfCER, AVEfs/l/E NEAR N EvVTO WW CRE£ K 



The Conselyea house was west of Humboldt Street 
and north of Skillman Avenue. 

The Baedel house stood on the north-east corner of 
Bushwick Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue. 

The Debevoise house was on the Woodpoint road, 
on the opposite side of the Mansion house. 

The Skillman house stood on Frost Street, west of 
Lorimer Street. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 31 

The Devoe houses were on either side of the Wood- 
point road between Parker and Bennett Streets. 

Tiie oldest house near the village plot still standing 
is, undoubtedly, the Duryea house, at the foot of 
Meeker Avenue, near Newtown Creek. Joost Durie, 
born in 1650, was a Huguenot, who emigrated from 
Mannheim, in the Palatinate on the Rhine, in 1675, 
and settled at first in New Utrecht, and then on the 
land on Newtown Creek, where he died in 1727. 

GREENPOINT 

Also called the Cherry Point, or the Orchard, was- 
the land to a great extent cleared of woods by the 
Indians for their cornfields between the Bushwick and 
Newtown Creeks. Here lived for some years Dirck 
Volkertse, the Noorman, in a stone house on the 
north side of Bushwick Creek, which latter was named 
after him, "the Noorman's Kil," on land granted to 
him in 1645. Indian burial grounds, found when the 
streets were graded, bore evidence that the Indians 
had a settlement here. During and after the Revolu- 
tion the whole section comprised five farmhouses and 
the powder house. 

On the shore of Newtown Creek stood the house of 
Peter Bennett, near the East River shore. Close to the 
meadows, near present Oakland and Freeman Streets, 
was situated the home of Captain Pieter Pra, later 
known as the Provoost house, built of stone; it burned 
down about eighty years ago. On the river bank near 
Java Street was standing the Abraham Meserole house,. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN :^^ 

built about 1700. The Jacobus Colyer house stood 
near Calyer Street, near present West Street, and the 
Jacob Meserole house on Lorimer Street, near Norman 
Avenue and near Bushwick Creek. 

The Woodpoint road was the only road that con- 
nected Greenpoint with the outer world, therefore the 
farmers here had to depend mostly upon their row- 
boats. 

In 1837 the Greenpoint, Ravenswood and Hallett's 
Cove Turnpike road was opened — the Franklin Street 
of to-day — which was later extended to Williams- 
burgh. In 1838 a foot bridge was built across Bush- 
wick Creek. In 1853 the ferry to Tenth Street, New 
York City, was opened. 

CROSS-ROADS SETTLEMENT 

An old lane led from Bushwick Village into the 
New Bushwick Lands. Just at the beginning of this 
tract of land a settlement had come into existence 
during the eighteenth century at about the junction of 
the present Bushwick and Flushing Avenues, which 
was known as " het kruis pad," or Bushwick Cross- 
Roads. Later there stood here Alexander Whaley's 
blacksmith shop. Whaley was a man of great respect- 
ability and a personal friend of Washington. He was 
of English descent and born in Montville, in the New 
England States, in 1746, and died here aged 94. This 
settlement extended in later years to the Cypress Hills 
Plank Road. 



34 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

WILLIAMSBURGH 

Dense thickets covered hundreds of acres of bog 
and low land extending from Wallabout Bay to New- 
town Creek and extended through the central part of 
the town of Bushwick. This region was known as 
"het kreupelbosch" (kreupelbosch — thicket, copse), or 
Cripplebush. The scrub-oak or cripplebush predom- 
inated here. The land formerly was probably the site 
of a forest, whose trees were later supplanted by these 
bushes, which protected the ground from being dried 
up by the sun. Over the morasses led narrow trails, 
known to the redskins and the wild beasts, but treach- 
erous to strangers. Between the Cripplebush and the 
East River shore was the site of the later Williams- 
burgh. 

On the Nicolls' map, 1664-1668, settlements along 
the East River shore are marked by huts, drawn 
roughly. At the mouth of " Mashpack Kil " (New- 
town Creek), three huts; at the mouth of Noorman's 
Kil (Bushwick Creek), two huts. Opposite Corlear's 
Hook, six huts, of which three are double huts and at 
"the ferry" (present Fulton Ferry), six huts. Judg- 
ing from the number and size of these huts, the set- 
tlement opposite Corlear's Hook, the place where 
Williamsburgh rose later, was the largest. Between 
this settlement and the ferry is a creek marked Wal- 
baut; no huts indicate that there was a settlement here 
near the shore. 

At the time Bushwick Village was laid out by 
Stuyvesant an attempt was made to found another 



' M w i c 




n r 



,.l- ll>rTm.'l^' .•I'll,,- (r«,,,..S„r,,)rJ/:>"''-' 









PI o 

A MAP 

TILLAOE or 

WILLIAMSUVRGH, 



KI:Y0S CODilTV. IV. v., 



»/liirtmlr,^Orawd.umt,nmfmnlhFWtlDiaHHt 





UUII 




ISA 


4c riKTn, 




t the tupettiaio 


of llENRV PAVSO^f, Ctwk of 


•fud V. 


sgp. Kovcmbcr. IWi 




wcni population 


of WJ«,m.bu,,fc. . 


"W" 


^ 






^ 






♦♦ 






O 







i^_ 





THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



35 



village at the strand along the river shore. The con- 
dition of this land was not found favorable for a settle- 
ment; drinking water was scarce and, in consequence 
of this fact, only a place of refuge was established 
upon the high bluff along later Fourth Street — now 
Bedford Avenue — near present South Fourth Street, 
for the farmers scattered along the shore, in case of 




OLD GRAND STREET TBRRY -WILLI AtASBVRGH 



/» MD TOUWTA l/V IN 



■7f7 



sudden attacks by the Indians. A small settlement 
along the water front was in existence at the time of 
the Revolution, known as " het strand." 

During the seven years of British occupation the 
woods and thickets, in fact, almost every tree in the 
towns of Bushwick and Brooklyn were swept away by 
the wasteful deprivations of the British soldiers. 



36 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



After the war vegetable gardens and orchards took 
the place of the forests. The strand settlement was 
connected since 1797 with Corlear's Hook, the site of 
the former Indian village, Rechtauk, by a rowboat 
ferry, operated by James Hazard, who lived at Cor- 
lear's Hook. At the beginning of the nineteenth Cen- 




JUNCnOAj OF BROAdWAY.nUSHINC ANd 
GRAHAM AVENUES. 



tury two attempts were made to start a village at the 
strand by Richard M. Woodhull and Thomas Morrell, 
respectively. The first mentioned named his enter- 
prise Williamsburgh (Williamsburgh was named for 
Colonel Williams, U. S. Engineer, who surveyed the 
place), and the latter bestowed the name of Yorkton 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



37 



upon his settlement. Each place had a ferry landing. 
The Yorkton Ferry gradually obtained the preference 
of the public, but the people had become used to the 
expression, "going to Williamsburgh," and thus this 
name remained and Yorkton became obsolete. In 
1827 the village of Williamsburgh was incorporated, 
and its limits extended in 1835. 

In 1836 a new ferry was started, running from the 
original Long Island ferry landing, Peck Slip in New 







York City to South Seventh Street, Williamsburgh. 
The ferry to Brooklyn had been removed to a slip fur- 
ther south. This ferry soon became the favorite route 
to Williamsburgh. On reaching the Long Island shore 
a traveler was sure to find a roadhouse where he could 
get a good meal and a fresh horse to start on his jour- 
ney into the interior of the island. 

In 1840 Williamsburgh was cut off from Bushwick 
and incorporated a distinct township. 



38 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



On January ist, 1852, the City of Williamsburgh 
came into existence, and on January ist, 1855, the 
cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh and the town of 




Bushwick were consolidated and incorporated as the 
City of Brooklyn. 

In the sixties Broadway was altered; the former 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



39 



Division Avenue had then been known for a few years 
as Broadway, but now South Seventh Street, and the 
part of South Sixth Street from present Bedford 
Avenue to Hewes Street were widened at a cost of 







c/fe^ifr^ «/^i^?-^^ >^^i^4<5 • 

$400,000, and became parts of one continuous road, 
while that section of Broadway which was cut off 
received its old name, " Division Avenue." 



40 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



The Roosevelt Street ferry now ran one of its boats 
to the landing place at the foot of the new main road, 
and Broadway became the most important street of the 
district. 

When the stage lines and, later, horse-car lines were 
established their termini were at Broadway ferry. The 




TeRfks TRCN TOUfJORY 







•3Sx> ^>^i 




/ / oT^ 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



41 



m 



South Side Railroad also ran a dummy line fro 
Bushwick Depot to this point. 

Jan, the Swede, one of the original squatters, built 
his house at the head of the Swede's Kil, a branch of 
the Noorman's Kil, near present Grand and Rodney 
Streets. 




The Fountain Inn was standing on Kent Avenue, 
near Grand Street. 

The Miller homestead was located upon the Kijkuit 
bluff, and was demolished in i860, when the highland 
was leveled. 




REM5EM House 

ON CtYMER STREET HCAR KEntaveni/e 




Mi^ *^!^!iatii4im!smnn^M ^^ 



C7 >^ J/ A:^.ti.,^.r^^ /^^^^/^/^rw^ 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



43 



The Remsen house was standing on Clymer Street, 
near Kent avenue. 

The Col. Francis Titus house stood on present 
Kent Avenue, near North Sixth Street. 

The Woertman homestead was situated on Bush- 
wick Creek and Second Street. 




BOEKUn HOUSE 



The Boerum house, on Division and Kent Avenues. 

The Williamsburgh City Hall was situated on South 
Second Street, near Bedford Avenue, next door to the 
present Gas Company office. In the sixties the hall 
was converted into dwelling houses. During the 
latter days of the existence of the City of Williams- 



44 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 




;^a^. 






burgh a new City Hall was in use. This building is 
also still standing in the rear of 365 Wythe Avenue, 
between South Fourth and South Fifth Streets. 



■^lai. 




t^» 






THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 45 

THE BUSHWICK AND RIDGEWOOD 
SECTIONS 

The Bushwick and Ridgewood sections embrace 
the 27th and 28th Wards, and have a population of over 
150,000, not including the large territory beyond the 
Queensborough line, which forms an undetachable 
part of the Ridgewood Section. 

The 27th and 28th Wards were, until 1892, parts of 
the Eighteenth Ward, which had a population of 2,601 
in 1855; 4,317 in i860, and 23,986 in 1880. In i860 
there were six hundred and thirty-two dwellings within 
this ward, and the most densely populated part was what 
is now known as the Eighteenth Ward. Very little has 
been written on the history of these particular parts of 
the city. When the several histories of Brooklyn 
were compiled the Bushwick and Ridgewood sections 
were either farm lands or isolated "neighborhoods," 
with picnic grounds here and there, and thus never 
received any attention. The territory between the 
Cross-Roads settlement and the Green Hills or 
Cypress Hills, which latter formed the boundary line 
of the town of Bushwick, was knov.^n in the early 
times as the New Bushwick Lotts, and consisted of 
meadows and woodlands. 

When Stuyvesant visited Bushwick village in 1661, 
he granted to the settlers a large tract of land adjoin- 
ing, as pasturage for their cattle, extending from the 
east side of Smith's Island, southward to the hills, 
along the hills westward to the heights of Merck's 



46 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Plantation, from said heights northerly by Merck's 
plantation to Bushwick (village), being a four-cornered 
plot of land. 

The compiler has no doubt that this plot of land 
embraced the New Bushwick lands. The line along 
the Newtown side is, in a general way, identical with the 
Queens Borough line of to-day, with the exception, 
that Smith's Island has since been ceded to Newtown, 
the hills are still in their place, the Cemetery of the 
Evergreens covering the part in question; Merck's 
plantation was at Cripplebush, and probably extended 
to present Broadway. 

The first house erected here, of which we have any 
record, was the Suydam house, built about 1700, before 
the Bushwick Road was in existence. About this time 
the common lands of the town, /. <?., "the New Bush- 
wick Lotts," were finally divided among the several 
freeholders; and one of these, at least, as far as can be 
judged now, was enterprising enough to settle upon 
his property in the forest. 

In the Brooklyn Corporation Manual of 1867 it is 
stated that the house w^as erected by Leffert Lefferts 
about 1700, but this is evidently erroneous; more likely 
it was built by one Van Nuyse. Although there is no 
Van Nuyse recorded as living in Bushwick at that time, 
a William Janse Van Nuyse was residing in the town 
in 1 7 15, who had been baptized in 1699, and his father 
may have owned the land and built the house. Leffert 
Pieterse married Abagail, daughter of Auke Janse 
Van Nuyse. One of his fourteen children was Leffert 
Lefferts, born in 1701. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 47 

Leffert Lefferts, the one who became identified with 
Bushwick, was born in 1701. In 1724 he bought from 
William Van Nuyse, of New Utrecht, for ^£438, a house, 
three lots and a part of a lot of the New Bushwick 
Lotts containing about seventy acres, also ten acres of 
woodland in Bushwick. On this farm he resided until 
his death, which occurred in 1754. In 1728 he had 



SUYDAM H0U5E 

added two more lots — about forty acres — for the sum 
of ;^42o, purchased from his neighbor Auke Rynerse, 
adjoining his own land. In 1753 he bought for ^239 
19 sh. from Johannes Durjee and Abraham Schenck 
twenty-seven acres also adjoining his land. 

This farm, then consisting of one hundred and 



48 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

thirty-six acres of land and overlapping the Brooklyn 
boundary line somewhat, together with about twenty- 
five acres of woodland in the town of Newtown and 
some meadows, was sold by his son Leffert Lefferts in 
1768 for ^2160-10 sh. to Jacob Suydam, who settled on 
the former Lefferts' farm and died thereon in 181 1, aged 
71 years. His second son Jacob was born in 1773 and 
died in 1847. 

The last named Jacob's son, Adrian Martense Suy- 
dam, was born at the homestead in 1826. His farm 
extended from Knickerbocker Avenue to Broadway 
and from Jefferson Avenue to Palmetto Street. In 
1869 there was no house on the farm except the old 
homestead. Suydam wishing to transform the farm 
into building lots gave to a man one lot on the condi- 
tion that he would at once erect and occupy a dwelling 
thereon, and his policy being liberal, in course of fifteen 
years one hundred and twenty-five residences were 
erected within the limits of his farm. 

When the ancient homestead was torn down in the 
first years of the present century, it looked as if it 
could have weathered the storms of another century. 
The first story was built of stones, gathered from the 
surrounding fields, the walls were of an unusual thick- 
ness. The house received its light through tiny panes 
of glass, set in heavy sash. When Jacob Suydam 
bought the property in 1768 he reshingled the house. 
During the Revolutionary War Col. Rahl took up his 
quarters here. His regiment of Hessians constructed 
barracks on the lands of Abraham Luqueer and others 
nearby. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 49 

One day a captain of the regiment cut with his 
sword several large pieces from one of the sideposts of 
the doorway. As a memento of the troublous times 
the defacement was never repaired and the marks of 
the enemy's sword were visible as long as the old house 
remained. Its site is now occupied by the Second 
German Baptist Church, and is known as the corner of 
Evergreen Avenue and Woodbine Street. 

When Bushwick became part of the City of Brook- 
lyn in 1855 there were only a few roads in existence 
within the present 27th and 28th Wards, viz.: The 
Bushwick Road, Cooper's road leading to the Fresh 
Ponds of Newtown, Wyckoff Avenue, Cypress Hills 
Plank Road and some short streets between Broadway 
and Bushwick Avenue and also some around the Cross- 
Roads settlement; although the whole territory had 
been laid out in streets and the map filed with the 
proper authorities the year previous. 

Between the Cypress Hills Plank Road and the 
Brooklyn and Newtown Turnpike Road — the present 
Flushing Avenue — w^ere the farms of Catherine 
Wyckoff, Mrs. Susan Stone, Abm Vandervoort, George 
White and part of the Cross-Roads settlement. 

Between the Newtown line and Wyckoff Avenue, 
Wm. Covert, Nicholas Wyckoff, Catherine Wyckoff, 
Peter Schoonmaker, one Clifford, John Van Nostrand, 
Susan A. Wyckoff and Peter Meserole. 

Between Wyckoff Avenue and Bushwick Avenue, 
Flushing and Greene Avenues, continuation of Mrs. 
Susan Stone's farm, Dr. Troutman, James Harrison, 



50 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Abm Vandervoort (continuation), Abm Stockholm and 
Andrew Stockholm. 

Between Wyckoff Avenue and Bushwick Avenue, 
Greene and Jefferson Avenues, Ralph Lane, the heirs 
of Stephen Schenck, Wm. Henry Furman, Jacob Suy- 
dam, Watson Bowron, Mrs. Stone, the Methodist 
Protestant or Union Cemetery, Margaret E. Duryea 
and Peter F. Suydam. 

Between Jefferson Avenue and Eldert Street and 
from the Newtown line to Brooklyn line, Wm. Covert, 
Margaret E. Duryea and a small triangle of Mrs. S. 
Duryea's farm. 

Between Eldert and Cooper Streets from the New- 
town line to Broadway, Wm. Covert and Wm. Voor- 
hees. 

Between Cooper Street, the Newtown line, the New 
Lotts line and Broadway, John and Richard Cooper, 
the heirs of John Moffat, Francis Dubois, James Pill- 
ing, Wm. Henry Furman, and John Vanderveer. 

Between Bushwick Avenue and Broadway from 
Flushing Avenue to Jefferson Avenue the land was 
cut up in smaller parcels; the more important ones 
among them were those owned by Charles Debevoise, 
William Wall and Thomas Moore; also quite some 
streets were laid out here. 

Shortly before the consolidation the section became 
known as Bowronville — the Bowron family owning 
some land here — and in 1852 a church was organized 
by twenty of the neighboring farmers. A small build- 
ing was erected at the intersection of the two Stock- 
holm farms, the two farmers having donated the site. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



51 




A larger edifice was built in 1853. It is still standing, 
wings having been added in 1883, and is known as the 
South Bushwick Reformed Church, or more popularly, 
as the White Church. 

On the former site of the Union Cemetery the Bush- 
wick High School is being erected. 



52 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

The Ridgewood Section in Queens County had an 
eventful past. The town of Newtown claimed it as a 
part of its purchase from the Indians, but could never 
get a clear title. The town of Bushwick also laid 
claim to it, and Bushwick's chances were better, as 
parts of the territory were included in the town patents. 
Still the legal fight over the land was carried on for 
over a century. 

One of the residents at Mespat Kills, by which 
name the section was known, deposed later before a 
court, that in the year after the arrival of the first Eng- 
lish governor in 1664, the people of Mespat Kills had 
sent delegates to the assembly at Hempstead Plains, as 
the other towns did, their section then not being a part 
of Newtown. 

^ A later governor, Lord Cornbury, decided in 1708, 
that the twelve hundred acres of land between the towns 
of Bushwick and Newtow^n were part of neither town 
and belonged therefore to the government, and he 
granted these lands to certain of his personal friends. 

After a struggle of over a century's duration the 
matter was settled in 1769, and the boundary line 
established as it is to this day. 

In 1853 an association was formed to found a new 
village, which was to be known as South Williams- 
burgh, and situated on the Cypress Hills Plank Road, 
near the northern entrance to the Cemetery of the 
Evergreens. There were five hundred shares for as 
many lots valued at J150.00 each. 

This neighborhood was the Ridgewood of forty 
years ago, and is now known as Evergreen. 



54 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

There is still a remnant of the original Manhattan 
Beach Railroad in existence, which used to run from 
the foot of Quay Street in Greenpoint to the Ocean. 
Later on when the trains were sent out from Hunter's 
Point, this road was abandoned for passenger service, 
and what is left of it is now used for the convenience 
of single manufacturing enterprises along its line to the 
junction at Evergreen. The Pennsylvania Railroad 
intends to reconstruct the line for passenger service 
and run trains over it by way of the Pennsylvania tubes 
to the depot on Manhattan Island. 




VAN N05TRANDFAR^\H0USE 
WYCKOFF^ COOPER AV? 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

BEDFORD 



55 



At the intersection of the road leading from "the 
ferry " to Jamaica with the road to Flatbush and the 
Cripplebush road, which connected with Newtown, was 
situated the little hamlet of Bedford Corners. In 1668 
a license was granted for an "inn." Two years later 
the people of Breukelen purchased the region around 
the hamlet from the Indians to enlarge their common 
lands. 

The old house standing on the Rem Lefferts' farm 
was taken down about seventy years ago. The Leffert 
Lefferts' house was destroyed in 1877 and the Nicholas 







Jt^ 



56 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Bloom house, purchased by Leffert Lefferts in 1791, 
was demolished in 1909. 

CRIPPLEBUSH 

The Cripplebush patent was granted in 1654 to 
settlers on the Wallabout. The hamlet known as 
Cripplebush was situated at the intersection of the 
Cripplebush Road and the Wallabout and Newtown 
Road or about Nostrand and Flushing Avenues of 
to-day. 

In 1830 Wallabout Village was started, including 
within its limits the Cripplebush settlement, and, still 
later, the section became known as East Brooklyn. 
Until a school was established here in 1775 the children 
of the settlement were placed in the Bedford and the 
Bushwick schools. The old Rappalyea house on the 
Cripplebush Road, Wallabout, was built by the great- 
grandfather of Jeremiah J. Rappelyea, who was born 
here in 1813. When the old house had to be torn down 
Jeremiah removed to the house he had built upon the 
upper part of his farm. 

EAST NEW YORK 

New Lots was originally a part of the town of 
Flatbush and was called by the Dutch, Oostwout; or, 
The New Lotts of Flatbush. The first settlement was 
made in 1654 by about twenty families from Holland 
and a few Palatinates. Six years later the portion of 
and previously held in common was divided and 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



57 



assigned. At the same time a horsemill was erected. 
A patent was granted to forty of the principal inhabi- 
tants in 1677 by Governor Andros. For many years 
the deacons of the church of Flatbush were chosen 
overseers of the poor, and from 1799-1812 the school 
was under the direction of the church officers. After 
that a frame house was erected for school purposes, 
20x32 feet in size, two stories high, and used until 




5CH£NCK HOMESTEAD 

OH JAriAICA A VENUE, BC;iLT ABOUT 1760. 

about 1888. After New Lots was annexed to Brooklyn 
in 1886 a brick school building was erected. The old 
framehouse was used for other purposes and was 
recently removed to a new site. 

During the War of 181 2 a detachment of twelve 
hundred militia was stationed in the town, in anticipa- 
tion of an attack by the British. 

The Reformed Dutch Church here was organized 



58 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

in 1824 with the Rev. W. Cruikshank as pastor; the 
edifice standing on the New Lots Road, where also 
some of the old-time farmhouses are located. The 
Eldert house on Eldert Lane and the Schenck home- 
stead on Jamaica Avenue are among the landmarks. 

New Lots was separated from Flatbush and made a 
township in 1852. 

East New York was laid out during the speculative 
days of 1835-6 as a rival to New York City. A ship- 
canal extending from Jamaica Bay to this place was to 
make it a port of entry. John R. Pitkin and his 
brother-in-law, Geo. W. Thrall, were the promoters of 
the project. They purchased three farms near the old 
Howard estate and laid these out in building lots. In 
i860 East New York had one thousand inhabitants and 
supported four churches: a Reformed, a Protestant 
Episcopal, a German Evangelical Lutheran and a 
Roman Catholic. A village charter was adopted in 
1871. The population in 1880 was 18,000. 

In 1859 the Brooklyn City Railroad extended the 
Fulton Avenue horse car line from the Clove Road to 
East New York. At the Clove Road was the Bedford 
Depot; here the passengers were transferred to smaller 
cars — converted stage-coaches — and hauled to East 
New York. Prior to that, connection with the City of 
New York was made by Holder's stages, running from 
the "Three Mile House" to East New York, as well as 
to Brooklyn Ferry in the opposite direction. Before 
Holder's stages were running the only communication 
with New York or Brooklyn was by the Flushing stage, 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



59 



passing daily through Jamaica, East New York and 
Bedford. This line was in existence since 1801. 

Besides East New York there were within the limits 
of the town the old village of New Lots, the Cypress 
Hills settlement, formed around the Snedeker Hotel 
about 1833, and Brownsville. The latter settlement was 
founded by Charles S. Brown about 1859. He put up 
two rows of houses on the fields near Manhattan Cross- 




HOLDER^ THREE MILE House., 

ing; and this settlement became known as Brown's vil- 
lage, or Brownsville, and the name was later applied to 
a larger area. 

Until consolidation in 1886 the town was divided 
into three school districts. The schoolhouse in the 
first district was erected in 1 806 on the New Lots Road. 
The second district was established in 1847, taking in 
the northern end of the town. The third district was 



6o 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



established in the Cypress Hills section about 1850. 
The first newspaper, The Mechanic, was estab- 
lished by Pitkin in 1838. The Kings County Adver- 
tiser and Village Guardian in 1853, and later changed 
into the Kings County Journal; The New Lots Jour- 
nal in 1870/ Die Laterne in 1878/ The Mirror in 
1884. The East New York Sejttinel appeared in 1886. 




HOWARD 



HH 



The Police Department was formed in 1877 with a 
force of nine men. The Fire Department was formed 
in 1850 and received a charter in 1865. 

The most interesting landmark in this section was 
Howard's Inn. The people of Newtown claimed the 
portion of the "New Lotts of Flatbush" along the 
hills, near the Brooklyn, Bushwick and Jamaica lines 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 6 I 

as part of the Middelburgh purchase from the Indians. 
To secure this valuable tract, they decided, in 1684, to 
give portions of it to any of their townsmen willing 
to locate upon the hills next to the Dutch. Twenty 
acres a piece were allotted to the first eight settlers. 
In this disputed tract, William Howard had made his 
home, on the south side of the hills, having purchased 
two of these "draught-lots" of Francis Way in 1699. 
He had, on several occasions, experienced rough treat- 
ment from his Dutch neighbors, and when he, about 
1715, began to build a new house, they came over in a 
body and burned the frame of the structure. Not dis- 
couraged, Howard again started to build and erected 
the building that became famous as "Howard's Half- 
way House," or "the Rising Sun Tavern." In 1717 
an agreement was reached that the south side of the 
hills should forever be accounted to be in the bounds 
of the town of Flatbush. 

When Howard built his house, which was of the 
Dutch type, the King's Highway from Brooklyn ferry 
to Jamaica had been laid out for a decade, and he 
erected his house on the road, about half a mile from 
its intersection with the Bushwick Road. 

In 1776, just prior to the Battle of Long Island, the 
British Army, which had lain for days at Flatbush Vil- 
lage, in front of the American outposts, was silently 
pushed out on the various lanes leading to the east- 
ward, and at two o'clock, on the morning of August 
27th, the sixteen thousand men halted on the plain at 
New Lots. 

The British were convinced that a large force of the 



62 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Americans was secreted along the Jamaica Road, 
which from this point led through hills and swamps 
and was exceedingly narrow, and therefore known as 
"the pass." To outflank these and reach the plain 
leading to Bedford Corners, without alarming the 
pickets, was their object. But the guides, who had 
led them so far, were unable to guide them through 
the wooded hills, and told the British the only man 
that could do this was William Howard, the innkeeper, 
and a grandson of the original settler. When the inn 
was reached a guard burst open the door of the bar- 
room and soon brought the alarmed innkeeper before 
the Commander-in-Chief and his generals. Sir Will- 
iam Howe, Lord Percy, Marquis Cornwallis and Sir 
Henry Clinton were the early morning guests. They 
demanded that Howard should lead a detachment 
through the Rockaway Path, over the hills to the right 
through the woods, on pain of being shot through the 
head. Thus compelled, William Howard led them over 
the path ; his little son, the later Major William Howard, 
was taken along. From the top of the hills they de- 
scended at the junction of the Fresh Pond Road and 
Bushwick Lane — present Moffatt Street and Central 
Avenue — through a valley to a point near the present 
Halsey Street car barns. From here they marched 
through the fields to a big tree, which stood at a turn 
in the Brooklyn and Jamaica Road, two or three 
hundred yards north of the later " Symons' Four Mile 
House," near the present corner of Reid Avenue and 
McDonnough Street. Here Howard and his son were 
released. The vanguard had completely flanked the 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 65 

position in the hills supposed to be guarded by the 
Americans, coming upon the road more than a mile 
below "the pass," which, they had been certain, was 
occupied by the enemy; yet the pass had been abso- 
lutely unguarded. The main body was notified and 
marched along the King's Highway. 

In later years, when the little boy of this narrative ' 
was known as Major William Howard, his daughter 
married Philip Reid. Reid built a row of houses on 
Fulton Street and Broadway more than fifty years ago. 
This place was at that time the garden spot of East 
New York, facing the Green Hills, now fully covered , 
by the Cemetery of the Evergreens. To the left was 
the Spencer orchard. From the back of the houses could 
be had a view of the Lawrence Mansion, and nearby 
was the Augustus Ivins house. 

The Howard estate, comprising then about four 
acres of land and the historic tavern, was sold in 1867 
at auction for $21,000 to Henry R. Pierson, the Presi- 
dent of the Brooklyn City Railroad Company; and the 
B. R. T. system has an extensive car depot and shops 
here to-day. The houses erected by Reid, for years 
known as "Italian Row," having fallen into decay, 
were torn down in 1909. 

BEYOND THE NEWTOWN CREEK 

In the olden times the lands on both sides of New- 
town Creek were most intimately connected. County 
lines were unknown, the creeks were dividing lines 
between the several plantations, for the reason that 



64 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

lands near a creek were taken up in preference to 
others, and the creeks were used in place of roads 
to transport the produce of the farms to the river, and 
thus it was made possible to reach the fort on Man- 
hattan Island. 

The territory along the Newtown Creek, as far as 
" Old Calvary Cemetery " and along the East River to 
a point about where the river is now crossed by the 
Queensboro bridge and following the line of the bridge 
past the plaza, was known as Dutch Kills. On the other 
side of Old Calvary was a settlement of men from New 
England and, therefore, named English Kills. The 
Dutch Kills and the English Kills, as well as the rest 
of the out-plantations along the East River, were set- 
tlements politically independent of each other and sub- 
ject only to the Director-General and Council at 
Manhattan Island, but became some time later parts 
of the town of Newtown. 

From Hans Hansen's plantation down along the 
Newtown Creek to the Kanapaukah Creek, which was 
later known as the Dutch Kills Creek, was the planta- 
tion of Richard Brutnell, a native of England; beyond 
the Kanapaukah was the plantation of Tymen Jansen, 
of Holland; to the north of it was the land of Burger 
Jorissen, a native of Silesia, who came to the Manor of 
Rensselaervvyck in 1637, being a smith by trade. After 
a residence there of about five years he purchased a 
vessel and became a trader on the Hudson, and event- 
ually settled upon a plantation on the Dutch Kills, 
which he had bought in 1642, and rented it out. After 
settling on his farm he erected a tidemill, on a creek 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 65 

that was named after him, Burger's Kill, and is now 
known as Jack's Creek. He died here in 1671. These 
men were the pioneers of the Dutch Kills. 

Thomas Wandell lived at Mespat Kills in 1648. 
Brutnell's plantation had become the property of Will- 
iam Herrick. Wandell married Herrick's widow, and 
purchased the plantation in 1659. He added to it fifty 
acres, patented to Richard Colfax in 1652. He resided 
on the farm until his death in 1691, and was buried on 
the hill later occupied by the Alsop family burial place. 
This land came into the possession of his nephew, 
Richard Alsop, and was known as the Alsop farm 
until Calvary Cemetery was opened, the older part of 
which covers a great portion of the farm. 

The plantation of Burger Jorissen came with other 
lands into the possession of Bourgon Broucard, or 
Bragaw, who had come to the county in 1675 from 
the Palatinate on the Rhine, settling in the Cripple- 
bush of Bushwick, where he bought in 1684 the farm 
later owned by Folkert Rapelye. Four years later he 
sold this property and removed to Staten Island and 
then to Dutch Kills. Here he purchased, from 1690 to 
'93, a large estate, which he sold again in 1702 to Will- 
iam Post. His son, Isaac, repurchased this plantation 
in 1713 and added to it. Isaac died in 1757. John, 
his son, died in 1782 on that part of the farm later 
owned by William Gosman. Another son, Andrew, 
retained the homestead farm at the Dutch Kills, and 
died thereon in 1828. In 1831 the farm came into the 
possession of William and Abraham Payntar. The 
old farm-house built by Isaac Bragaw, probably shortly 



66 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



before his death in 1757, still remains near the bridge 
plaza on Jackson Avenue, opposite Skillman Avenue; 
but its days are numbered, for a large sign announces 
that the ground upon which it stands is for sale. The 
old house has seen many changes. When it was built 
the land around was tilled by prosperous farmers, the 
grist-mill on the Bragaw farm was of great advantage 




if-' 



<-/C*'^^7-l-^, 



ei/7* 



j/c 



CTLCA^ 



^<c5L^/^j ery^, (^/^.»-e^^ 04.^ t^^y%^>-^f^^ <s>yful^^i'L^t^x, t^/t , .-^*. 






<^/<c^z- r/ c/j'^-<s>*z-«^ '^^C^^ . 



to them. To church they went to Newtown village; 
the schoolhouse was near the river shore. Nearby was 
the dock whence they sent their produce in boats to 
the fly-market in New York City. By wagon they 
went to Brooklyn ferry, and later to Bushwick ferry 
also, and thence across to the city. Now all that is 
left of the old-time farms is the old mansion. On its 
one side are passing the trolley cars, after leaving the 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 67 

bridge, and on the other side are the Long Island Rail- 
road yards. The nearby creeks have been filled in and 
the hills have been leveled. The old house is now 
standing below the grade of the street, and the day is 
quickly approaching when it will sink into its grave 
and be but a memory. 

BUSHWICK CHURCH 

At the beginning of Bushwick Avenue is standing 
a plain, frame church building. It is Old Bushwick 
Reformed Church. A few years ago a row of tene- 
ment houses was erected on the rear part of the tri- 
angular plot, formerly occupied by the church and 
graveyard exclusively; and now a board fence sur- 
rounds the edifice and what is left of the grounds. On 
the one side of the structure is Old Woodpoint Road, 
a remnant of the old town road. The church building 
and the road with a few little old-fashioned frame 
houses on the opposite side is all that remains of old 
Bushwick village, laid out 252 years ago, under the 
personal supervision of the highest official of the Col- 
ony. When and where was the first Bushwick church 
erected? In most of the books referring to the ecclesi- 
astical history of the town are found these stereotyped 
remarks: "There seems to have been a church edifice 
in existence in this town prior to 1720, but evidence is 
lacking. Part of the communion service bears date of 
1708, and there is also a receipt for a church bell dated 
1711." 

It is known that the minister of New Amsterdam 



6S THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

at first, and later the one at Midwout, and still later 
the colleagues settled there, supplied the several Dutch 
churches of Kings County. In the call extended to 
the Rev. Bernardus Freeman in 1702 the Boswijck 
church was included for the first time with the others. 
According to this there was then a church in exist- 
ence in this town. In "A Manual of the Reformed 
Protestant Dutch Church in America," published in 
1859, and giving the names and length of service of 
the respective ministers, are the following remarks: 

" Bushwyck, see Boght and Midwout." 

Under Midwout it is noted: 

" This name also included sometimes the churches 
of Brooklyn, Flatlands, Bushwick and Gravesend." 

And under Boght: 

" Church organized 16 — . 

John Bassett, D.D. 

1805-1814. Boght (Bushwick) and Gravesend, 

1814-1824. Bushwick. 

Stephen H. Meeker. 

1824 — . Bushwick." 

The compiler has come to the conclusion that the 
blockhouse erected in 1660 by the residents of the 
Waaleboght, at the Lookout or Kijkuit — on the site 
later occupied by the Miller homestead, near the lower 
part of South Fourth Street — was used as a place of 
refuge in case of attacks by the Indians, and also as a 
place of public worship by the farmers near the river 
shore, as well as by the inhabitants of Boswijck village, 
until a church edifice was erected about 1720 within 
the village; and for this reason the church is recorded 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



69 



in the manual under the name of Boght — from Waale- 
boght — until 1814, when the Rev. John Bassett took 
charge of the church at Bushwick village, as resident 
minister. The church records were started under the 
heading, "Boght," and were kept in this way, even 
after the church edifice had been erected in the village 
proper, and only when the collegiate system had 
terminated, and even the communion between Bush- 
wick and Gravesend under Dr. Bassett's ministration 




BLOCKH0U.SE erc<^UcL iQQ>Ou,x^if^KlJKUIT-BLm f 

5KETCHED ATTER OLD DtSCRtPJIONS 

had come to an end, " Bushwick Church " was entered 
upon the records, and the old name, "Boght," dropped. 
Other matter to be considered in this connection is as 
follows: Sometime during the eighteenth century 
another "Boght" Church had come into existence in 
the neighborhood of Albany, and this fact may have 
had some bearing on the change of name. The block- 
house was the only public building in the town, and 
the bell, for which there is a receipt dated 171 1, may 



yo THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

have been installed in that rude structure to call the 
farmers together in case of alarm, as well as to divine 
service, while prior to that a small cannon served the 
purpose. The village was founded by Frenchmen, who, 
to attend divine service, went over to the fort, within 
whose walls, occasionally, services were held in their 
native tongue. There were also sermons preached in 
French in the several settlements, in farmhouses, from 
time to time by the Dutch ministers of New Amster- 
dam. Along the river front were a majority of Dutch 
settlers located, and it is therefore likely that the 
services of the Dutch Church were held in this neigh- 
borhood. 

Invariably the graveyard surrounded the church 
edifice in the early Dutch settlements, but in Bushwick 
village the graveyard was laid out without having a 
church building; this seems to strengthen the theory 
that the blockhouse was used for public worship, and, 
being located upon an elevated point and distant from 
the village, it was natural enough that the inhabitants 
of the village had their burial place within the village 
limits. The old roads of the town were the Wood- 
point Road and the Kijkuit Lane. The Woodpoint 
Road led to the Town dock, and had two branches: 
one toward the landing on Noorman's Kill, and the 
other to the mill. The Kijkuit Lane ran from the 
village following the line of present Metropolitan 
Avenue to Keap Street; near Union Avenue, meander- 
ing along, it struck Rodney Street; Keap Street again, 
it struck Broadway, approaching this line toward the 
shore until it reached the Kijkuit, and then ran along 



72 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

to the Noorman's Kil. The one branch of the Wood- 
point Road came to the landing on this Kil, and con- 
nection with Kijkuit Lane could be made by boats, 
and thus the blockhouse could also be reached from 
the Greenpoint side. The roads led to the most 
important points; the one to the Town dock, whence 
the crops of the farms were sent to the fort, and the 
other to the place where church services were held. 

The church erected in the village about 1720 was a 
frame structure with a very steep roof terminating in 
an open belfry; the whole resembling a haystack, sim- 
ilar to the Dutch church buildings at Jamaica and 
New Utrecht. The worshippers furnished themselves 
with chairs until 1795, when a gallery was erected and 
the ground floor provided with benches. 

The shore along the river had in course of many 
years become dotted with comfortable farmhouses, and 
the little church at " Bushwick Green" had accommo- 
dated all those residing along the shore. 

Around the Bushwick ferry a more compact settle- 
ment had formed, and in 1827 the village of Williams- 
burgh was incorporated. In the following year the 
Bushwick Church laid here the cornerstone for a 
chapel, which was dedicated in 1829. As soon as the 
chapel was under way the congregation at Bushwick 
village resolved to erect a new house of worship in 
their own village, and took down the old "Beehive," 
as the church was named from its peculiar shape, and 
dedicated this new edifice two months after the Will- 
iamsburgh chapel had been opened. The bell, that 
had been taken from the old edifice and is said to bear 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 75 

the date of 1705 and to have been imported from 
Holland, was installed in the new church, and is there 
at this day. 

Furman says in his " Antiquities of Long Island ": 
" Many of the Dutch churches on Long Island were of 
a curious style of architecture — either circular, six- 
square or eight-square, with high roofs and a belfry or 
cupola springing from the top of the roof with a small 
bell in it. The Bushwick Church was six-square, and 
was taken down in 1827. A few months previous to 
its destruction a lady of our acquaintance, who had a 
fine taste for sketching, at our request made a drawing 
of this antique church, which we now possess and 
prize highly as an accurate representation of these 
curious old churches, which have now all disappeared 
from our island before the march of modern improve- 
ment." He also says: " The oldest tombstone at pres- 
ent in the Bushwick burying ground is one erected in 
memory of Cornelius Bogart, and bears the date of 
1769. There are inscriptions in Dutch on tombstones 
in this burial place bearing date as late as 1780." 

Tradition has it, that after the Battle of Long 
Island, a detachment of the American Army passing 
through the town, left their wounded and sick at the 
church, to be cared for by the Dutch farmers. Lord 
Howe, after finding that the Bushwick folks had given 
sympathy to the revolutionists, ordered the rebel 
church to be closed up, and it remained that way until 
the close of the war. 

The church erected in 1829 was built on the old 
site, fronting same way as the old church did and sur- 



74 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



rounded by the churchyard which had begun to be 
used fifteen years before. The ancient graveyard of 
the settlement was a short distance from the church. 
Since 1814 most interments had been made in the new 
churchyard. In 1879 such remains as were left in the 
old burial ground were removed, estimated to be about 




4 tSTo 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 75 

two hundred and fifty, and the bones were collected in 
seven casket boxes, and these were deposited under 
Bushwick Church. Tombstones with inscriptions of 
the early days of the Dutch settlements are rarely 
found, as there were no sculptors among these set- 
tlers. A few stones bearing dates as far back as 1771 
were decipherable, and were removed to the new burial 
place. 

When the territory of the village of Williamsburgh 
was extended in 1835, it was provided that "a piece of 
land occupied by the Dutch Reformed Church for 
public worship and a burying ground known by the 
name of Bushwick Church shall be excepted and 
excluded from the said village of Williamsburgh, and 
the same shall continue to form a part of said town of 
Bushwick." 

The foregoing lines contain the story of the old 
church. Little fragments, gathered here and there, 
have been carefully put together, until we can follow 
its career from the very beginning of civilization on 
this island. The best men in the community during 
many generations have given their services to it, and 
though the sturdy Dutch farmers have long been laid 
to rest, the historic value of the structure still remains. 

The following article appeared in the Brooklyn Times^ 
September iith, 1909: 



76 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

WANTS CITY TO SAVE OLD DUTCH LANDMARK 



EUGENE ARMBRUSTER PLEADS FOR 
BUSHWICK REFORMED CHURCH 



"Only Connecting Link in the Eastern District Between the 
Dim Past and ttte Present/' He Says— Edifice Stands in the 
Path of Bushwick Avenue Extension 

An eloquent plea for the preservation by the city of the Old 
Bushwick Reformed Church, at Conselyea and Humboldt Streets,, 
which stands in the path of the proposed extension of Bushwick 
avenue, is made by Eugene Armbruster, of 263 Eldert street, in a 
letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Times, in connection with an 
article which appeared on this page on September 4, relative to old 
Bushwick's Town Hall. 

Mr. Armbruster, who is an authority on matters pertaining Xo- 
the history of Brooklyn, calls attention to the fact that this old 
church building is " the only connecting link in the Eastern District 
between the dim past and the present." "Other cities carefully 
guard old landmarks and try to preserve them for the benefit of 
later generations," he says, and asks: "Why not spare this ven- 
erable structure and extend Bushwick Avenue through Woodpoint 
Road in a trifling curve around the church?" 

The preservation of the old church should be a matter of pride 
with the people of the Bushwick section, for it is about the only 
landmark of the old village of Bushwick that is still in existence. 
Furthermore, it is, in a way, a public building, for under the Dutch 
regime the church was as much a municipal institution as the Town 
Hall or School. 

Mr. Armbruster's letter, which throws some valuable light on 
the formation and history of old Bushwick, follows: 

To the Editor of the B^'ooklyn Ti77ies : 

Sir: Referring to your article in Saturday's Times about the Old 
Bushwick Town Hall, in which you invite your readers to give 
some information about the old building, I take the liberty to ask 
you for some space in your valued pjiper for the purpose. 

The Dutch Governor, William Kieft, secured for the West India 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 77 

Company in 1638 from the Canarsee Indians, who claimed the 
whole of Kings County, Newtown and part of Jamaica, all the, 
territory of the later town of Bushwick, lying between Wallabout 
Bay, Newtown Creek, the swamps of Newtown and the later 
dividing line from Brooklyn; that is Division Avenue and Broad- 
way of to-day. 

In 1660 Gov. Stuyvesant advised the scattered farmers in the 
territory to concentrate themselves "as we have war with the 
Indians, who have slain several of our Netherland people," and that 
they could not expect any assistance from New Amsterdam. So 
they built a blockhouse on the " Lookout," near the foot of South 
Fourth street, where later on the Meserole homestead stood, upon 
a bluff on the river shore. There they were to take refuge in case 
of an attack from hostile Indians. 

At about the same time some Frenchmen and others requested 
of Stuyvesant a grant of land; he went over to the territory men- 
tioned, and selected a spot between Newtown and Bushwick 
Creeks, where he directed them to lay out a village, intending this 
to be a bulwark against the Englishmen, who had settled at the 
English Kills of Newtown. The following year he visited the 
place again and requested to give it a name. He gave the place 
the name of Boswijck, that translated means " heavy woods," be- 
cause the region was covered with forest. This name has since been 
corrupted into Bushwick. 

The village was enclosed by a stockade of sharpened logs for 
protection against attacks from Indians. In the beginning of the 
eighteenth centur}^ the Reformed Dutch Church was erected on 
the identical spot where its successor stands to-day, and across the 
Woodpoint road the Town Hall was built. In 1829 the old 
church edifice was taken down and the new one built. The Town 
Hall, of which we have a picture in the Common Council Manual of 
1868, was later on rented out as a hotel to help pay the town's ex- 
penses, but ultimately the electors of the town grew tired of keep- 
ing a hotel and sold the old Town House to a Yankee. 

Williamsburgh came into existence at the beginning of the last 
century, and was in 1827 incorporated as a village, embracing all 
that part of the Town of Bushwick up to Union avenue and from 



78 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Division avenue to Bushwick Creek. In 1S35 the boundary line 
was extended to Bushwick avenue, that is from Bushwick Creek to 
Broadwav and Flushing avenue, but the church and cemetery were 
excluded and to remain a part of the Town of Bushwick. 

In 1S40, Williamsburgh was cut off" from the Town of Bushwick 
and the Town of Williamsburgh came into existence. In 1S51, the 
Citv of Williamsburgh was created. Bushwick then consisted of 
that part of Brooklyn known to-day as Bushwick and Ridgewood 
(in Kings County), Greenpoint, and the old village laid out by 
Peter Stuvvesant. From this it will be seen that the upper Bush- 
wick section has a perfect right to be called by the old town name. 

When the village around Bushwick Church was in its best days, 
the upper Bushwick was woodland, called the new Bushwick 
lands, and each freeholder of (he town owned a parcel of the land 
to cut fuel, etc. The road leading into this section was the new 
Bushwick lane, now Evergreen Avenue. When the White Church 
was erected it was named the South Bushwick Reformed Dutch 
Church, so the section may have been known as South Bushwick. 

The term Eastern District was given in 1S55, when Williams- 
burgh and Bushwick w^ere consolidated with Brooklyn to the terri- 
tory of the original Town of Bushwick (including Williamsburgh), 
and the Nineteenth Ward, then a part of the City of Brooklyn, was 
included. Since that time the Bedford and Stuyvesant sections 
have been built up and by common use included in the Eastern 
District as far as about Bedford Avenue and Atlantic towards New 
Lots. Officially the denominations Eastern and Western District 
have been extinguished after an existence of scarcely one year, ex- 
cepting in case of the Fire Department and Post OtSce arrange- 
ments. 

Let me say in this connection a few words in regard to the Old 
Bushwick Reformed Dutch Church. There have been of late 
many propositions made to extend Bushwick Avenue beyond this 
old church, and the edifice has been a stumbling block in the way 
of progress. But we should remember that this church building is 
the only connecting link in the Eastern District between the dim 
past and the present. Other cities carefully guard old landmarks, 
and try to preserve them for the benefit of later generations. Why 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 79 

not spare this venerable structure and extend Bushwick Avenue 
through Woodpoint Road in a trifling curve around the church? 

This is the only landmark of the original town of Bushwick still 
in existence, that is of public buildings, for under the Dutch 
regime the church was as much a municipal institution as the Town 
House or school. 

It would be of some value to be able to point out to other parts 
of the greater city, a building standing in the centre of a plot of 
land, where two and a half centuries ago, sixteen acres of forest 
land were cleared for a settlement which has in course of time de- 
veloped into what is known to-day as the Eastern District of 
Brooklyn, a section inhabited by over 600,000 people. If such a 
section would make a reasonable demand of the city's government,, 
it would undoubtedly get full consideration. 

Yours very truly, 

EUGENE ARMBRUSTER. 
263 Eldert Street, 

THE ORIGINAL ECCLESIASTICAL 
ORGANIZATIONS 

At Bushwick Green the Reformed Dutch Church 
was organized in 1654. Edifice erected 1720; new 
building erected 1829. At Bushwick Cross-Roads the 
Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1840. 
At Bowronville the Second or South Bushwick 
Reformed Dutch Church was organized in 1852. At 
Greenpoint the Ascension Protestant Episcopal Church 
was organized in 1846. Edifice erected on Kent Street^ 
between Franklin wStreet and Manhattan Avenue in 
1853. The First Baptist Church of Greenpoint was 
organized in 1847. A small edifice was erected in 
1849. The Greenpoint Dutch Reformed Church was 
organized in 1848, Edifice built on Java and Franklin 



So 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 




Streets in 1850. At East Brooklyn the Wallaboiit 
Presbyterian Church was organized in 1842. The 
East Brooklyn Baptist Church was organized in 1847. 
The East Reformed Church was organized in 1853. 
At North Brooklyn the Reformed Dutch Church of 
North Brooklyn was organized in 1854. The Christ 
Church of North Brooklyn was organized in Williams- 
burgh in 1846, and removed later to this section. At 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 8 1 

New Brooklyn the German Reformed Dutch Church 
of New Brooklyn was organized in 1852. St. Bene- 
dict's Roman Catholic Church was established in 1854. 

At Williamsburgh a little frame chapel was erected 
by the Methodists in 1808. It was standing in a corn- 
field on Bushwick Street. The Society had been 
started in 1806, In 1838 the church was organized as 
South Second Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
was then located on South Second Street. The little 
chapel found itself soon standing on the turnpike road 
to Jamaica. It was destroyed by fire in 1845, having 
been used in its later years by different organizations. 
The Second and Third Methodist Episcopal Churches 
and the North Fifth Street Methodist Episcopal 
Church were among the earliest organizations. In 
1828 a chapel was built on present Bedford Avenue 
and South Second Street by the Reformed Dutch 
Church of Bushwick village. The site of the chapel 
had been donated by men who turned the neighboring 
farms into building lots. It w^as built on a rough 
farmer's lane, uneven with boulders and stumps of 
trees. The built-up part of the village was then con- 
fined to the parts of Grand Street and Metropolitan 
Avenue close to the shore. For years members of all 
denominations of the Protestant faith worshipped here 
together, excepting the Methodist Episcopalians. 

In 1832 the Methodist Protestant Church was 
organized by former members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. A small edifice was erected on Grand 
Street and present Bedford Avenue. The Zion African 
Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1832, 



82 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



worshipping on North Fourth Street, between present 
Berry Street and Bedford Avenue. Other African 
Methodist Episcopal Churches were the Asbury and 
Bethel Churches. 

St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church was organ- 
ized in 1837, and a little brick chapel was erected in 
the following year. Christ Church was organized in 
1846; St. Paul's, 1848; Calvary, 1849, and St. James 




St .Tl^rfc^ C f] Lt r c/^ . 



(colored), 1846. In 1839 Williamsburgh Bethel Inde- 
pendent Baptist Church was organized. It became the 
First Baptist Church of Williamsburgh in 1846. In 
1843 ^ frame building was erected on present Driggs 
Avenue, near South First Street, St. Mary's Roman 
Catholic Church was erected on North Eighth Street 
and present Kent Avenue in 1840. It was a little 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



83 



frame structure, surrounded by a graveyard. The few- 
earlier Catholic settlers attended services at St. Mary's 
in New York City, originally on Sheriff Street, and 
later on Grand and Ridge Streets. A priest from 
New York City had attempted to hold services in the 
village as early as 1837, but being unable to collect 







y ^^^ 



84 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



sufficient money to give him support and meet current 
expenses, he withdrew from the place. Sts. Peter's 
and Paul's Church was established in 1847. Holy- 
Trinity Church for German Catholics was established 
in 1841, and an edifice erected on Montrose Avenue 
and present Manhattan Avenue. The First Presby- 







THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 85 

terian Church was organized in 1842, and a building 
erected on South Second and present Roebling Streets. 
The First Congregational Church of Williamsburgh 
was organized in 1843 by former members of the First 
Presbyterian Church. An edifice was erected in the 
same year on South Third Street and present Hewes 
Street. St. Johannes' German Evangelical Church 
was organized in 1843. ^ building was erected on 
Graham Avenue and present Ten Eyck Street. The 
Presbyterian Church of Williamsburgh (Old School) 
was organized in 1844 by another number of former 
members of the First Presbyterian Church. The brick 
building on South Third Street, and present Driggs 
Avenue, and still in use, was dedicated in 1846. The 
organization is now known as South Third Street 
Presbyterian Church. The First Universalist Church 
and Society was organized in 1845. A brick edifice 
was erected on present Bedford Avenue and South 
Third Street in 1847, which, after having been occu- 
pied by various organizations, was razed in 1909. The 
Reformed Scotch Presbyterian Church was organized 
in 1850, and was located on North Fifth and present 
Rodney Streets. The New England Church and 
Society was organized in 1851. The Jewish Congre- 
gation Temple Beth Elohim was organized in 185 1, 
and purchased a building on the corner of South First 
Street and present Marcy Avenue in i860. 

BURYING GROUNDS 

The burial ground of the early settlers of Boswijck 
village was situated on the Woodpoint Road; being a 



S6 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



square plot of land at the intersection of Kingsland 
Avenue, Withers and Parker Streets. In 1879 the 
grounds were abandoned, and the remains were re- 
interred under Bushwick Church. A new graveyard 
had been established in 1814 around the old church 
edifice on plot bounded by present Humboldt Street 
and Old Woodpoint Road, Conselyea St. and Skillman 
Avenue. The new church building was erected fifteen 
years later on the old site in the churchyard. Private 
family burial places were on some of the farms. On 




THE DEVOE HOUSES & PART OF AN CiENT 
CRAVE-Vard on the woodpoint roap 

the Alsop farm, on the Queens County shore of the 
Newtown Creek, was the grave of Thomas Wandell, 
the former owner of the farm, who died in 169 1. A 
large part of the farm became the site of Calvary Cem- 
etery, but the Alsop family burial ground, by a reser- 
vation to the family, still remains Protestant ground. 
The burial place on the Provoost farm was on India 
and Oakland Streets. The Schenck family burial 
place is on the Wyckoff farm, near the former site of 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 87 

the Schenck mill. The burial place on the Leffert 
Lefferts farm at Bedford Corners was near the pres- 
ent Bedford Avenue and Halsey Street. A Roman 
Catholic cemetery surrounded St. Mary's Church, 
which was erected in 1840 on North Eighth Street and 
present Kent Avenue. Sixty years ago there were 
several cemeteries in the Eastern District, which were 
later abandoned and their contents removed and 
re-interred in Cypress Hills Cemetery, some time after 
the latter had been incorporated in 1848 and opened 
for burial purposes in the following year. There was 
a cemetery near Newtown Creek in the vicinity of 
Orient Avenue. In August, 1910, while grading 
streets, workmen dug up several skulls and a number 
of bones at Morgan and Orient Avenues. The Meth- 
odist Cemetery was located on the block between 
Powers and Devoe Streets, taking in part of the next 
block, and between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street. 
Its contents were removed to Cypress Hills about 
1856. The Cemetery of the Cannon Street Baptist 
Church of New York City was located between Old 
Woodpoint Road, Humboldt, Withers and Frost 
Streets. The congregation was permitted by several 
acts of the Legislature of 1864 to remove the remains 
to other cemeteries. The Union Cemetery of more 
than sixty years ago was bounded by Maujer, Stagg, 
Leonard and Lorimer Streets. A new Union Ceme- 
tery was opened in 185 1 on ground bounded by Knick- 
erbocker and Irving Avenues, Palmetto Street and 
present Putnam Avenue. It was some ten acres in 
extent. The cemetery was the property of the Grand 



88 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Street First Protestant Methodist Church. In 1897 
the grounds were sold, and the remains removed to 
Cedar Grove. The Cemetery of the Evergreens was 
incorporated in 1849, and opened in 185 1, located 
upon the Green Hills or Cypress Hills. It contained 
originally 112 acres, of which a small part was in 
Queens County. It has since been increased to 270 
acres. The Most Holy Trinity Cemetery was later 
laid out by the Roman Catholic Church of the same 
name on Montrose Avenue, on land between the Cem- 
etery of the Evergreens, along Cemetery Lane and the 
tracks of the New York and Manhattan Beach Rail- 
road, the Old Bushwick Road and the Queens County 
line, taking in besides a tract of land beyond the 
county line, and covering in all twenty-five acres. 

THE EARLY DAYS OF THE EASTERN 
DISTRICT SCHOOLS 

BUSHWICK SCHOOLS 

The Bushwick School was established in 1662, two 
vears after the villa2:e had been laid out. There were 
not many children within the limits of the entire town- 
ship. Two years later the English rule succeeded the 
Dutch in the Colony, and the Free-School system was 
abolished, and the schools depended on the support of 
their patrons for a century and a half. The school 
was started in the centre of the village and continues 
to this day as Public School No. 23. The first school- 
master was the town clerk, who received for the clerk- 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 89 

ship the value of four hundred guilders in Indian 
wampum, and for his services as teacher he received 
house rent and firevyood. As town clerk he had to 
attend to the castigating of public offenders. The 
whipping-post stood in front of the little schoolhouse. 
Across the lane leading to the Woodpoint Road was 
the Town House, and near the school was later erected 
the church. The schoolhouse was in a deplorable 
condition when Martin Kalbfleisch settled in Green- 
point in 1842, but there was no schoolhouse at all in 
that section of the town, so he applied for permission 
to make use of the old structure near the church, 
repaired it, and obtained the services of a teacher. 

In all the other schools included in this sketch the 
Dutch language was used until about 1758. From then 
on to the termination of the collegiate system of the 
Dutch churches in 1800, Dutch and English were 
taught. After that the English language was used 
exclusively, yet in the school at Bushwick Green 
the Dutch tongue was continued, and the sermons in 
the church were preached in the same language until 
the old church edifice was razed in 1829. When the 
town became part of Brooklyn in 1855, the school^ 
which had then been known for many years as Bush- 
wick District School No. i, became Public School 
No. 23 of the City of Brooklyn. 

The school at Bushwick Cross-Roads had its origin 
in a time before the Revolution, when the Dutch 
tongue was spoken by everybody in the settlement. 
A building, 20x24 feet and very low, was erected 
about 1815, and was used until 1847. Up to the time of 



90 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



consolidation the school was known as Bushwick Dis- 
trict School No. 2; standing upon a hill, on a point 
that was put on the map as the corner of Washington 
and Prospect Streets, or what is now Bremen and 
Noll Streets. It became Public School No. 24, and 
was generally known as Hill School. The edifice 
having become inadequate, after a long and weary- 
wrangle, a new school was built in 1874 upon another 




3J)i^c>i\-n)Ltfe iUotiilok <§cfuc^ U*o ^ 



elevated point, on the corner of present Arion Place 
and Beaver Street. This building has recently been 
somewhat enlarged, and is still widely known as Hill 
School. In 1820 David Dunham gave a plot of ground, 
30x100 feet, near North First Street, between what is 
now Berry Street and Bedford Avenue, a locality then 
known as "where the old log cabin stood." On this 



92 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

site a one-story schoolhouse was erected, 19x25 feet. 
This was Bushwick District School No. 3. The dis- 
trict embraced the territory west of Union Avenue ; there 
were then about forty children living within its limits. 
In 1838 thirty children were in attendance, the school 
being conducted on such a low level that most parents 
would not allow their children to attend. Then a new 
teacher was engaged and within a year the number of 
scholars increased to one hundred and fifty ; the number 
of children in the district being three hundred and six. 
In 1839 the sum of $125 was appropriated for the addi- 
tion of a second story. Within a few months the 
number of scholars increased to two hundred and 
thirty-six; one hundred and fifty-six boys and eighty 
girls. 

WILLIAMSBURGH AND GREENPOINT SCHOOLS 

In 1840 the town of VVilliamsburgh was incorpor- 
ated, and in 1843 divided into three districts, and a 
brick school building erected in each district. Bush- 
wick District School No. 3 became Williamsburgh 
District School No. i. Shortly after, these districts 
were rearranged into four districts. In 1850 a larger 
building was added in the First District, and the orig- 
inal wooden building, that had been erected in 1820, 
was occupied by the colored school. In the Second 
District the building was exchanged for a larger and 
more suitable one. District School No. 3 had been 
opened in a leased building on the corner of present 
Maujer Street and Graham Avenue in 1844. A new 
structure was erected on Maujer Street, near present 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



93 



Manhattan Avenue, in 1848. In 1852 the number of 
scholars in the City of Williamsburgh was 6,700. 
After consolidation, District School No. i, located at 
South Third Street, corner of Driggs Avenue, became 
Public School No. 16. No. 2, on North Fifth Street, 
corner of Driggs Avenue, became Public School No 
17. No. 3, on Maujer Street, between Manhattan 







.■* ■<.». »^ 



^^tCZ^tP^ 



•:ir/.> 





JZX€.~^y-€ t-^ / 




^^^^^-<^>^-£;t>^,&^-^<^'4 dT^-^ *-^<^ ^ 



//\'I^C<^ <ii.,-%.,^i^*^ y^--*.C^t^j(^ 9 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 95 




,«.>>t^ <f^^^^>'^ '^ -^ . 



Avenue and Leonard Street, became Public School 
No. 18. 

No. 4, on South Second Street, corner of present 
Keap Street, became Public School No. 19. 

Public School No. 20 was situated on South Fourth 
Street, between present Roebling Street and Marcy 
Avenue. 

Public School No. 21, on McKibben Street, near 
Manhattan Avenue. 

Public School No. 22, on Java Street between 
Franklin Street and present Manhattan Avenue, 
Greenpoint. 

Primary No. i was located on North Sixth Street, 
near present Kent Avenue. 

Primary No. 2, on North Third Street, between 
present Wythe Avenue and Berry Street. 




^JC^C-^Z^^t^* 



SL£.-U -^- ^ 




.r:,^^,^^ .^.^^ c^2A^ 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



97 




Primary No. 3, on North First Street, between 
present Berry Street and Bedford Avenue. 

Primary No. 4, on present Rodney Street, between 
Ainslie and North First Streets. 

Colored No. 3, on Keap Street, near North Second 
Street or present Metropolitan Avenue. 

BEDFORD SCHOOL 

At Bedford Corners, at the Junction of the Clove, 
Cripplebush and Jamaica Lanes, the schoolhouse was 
erected in 1721 on the village green. The building 
was divided by a large chimney; on the one side was 
the schoolroom, the other half being the teacher's resi- 
dence. Another room was added in 1775, fourteen 
feet square, which the teacher was permitted to use as 



98 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

a grocery store. This building was replaced by a new 
one in 1810. In 1830 a schoolhouse was built on a 
new site at what is now Bedford Avenue and Fulton 
Street, also a one-story structure, containing two 
rooms; one for the younger and one for the older 
children. It was enlarged in 1846. The building 
erected on Bedford and Jefferson Avenues in 1852 
became Public School No. 3. It was enlarged in 1854, 
and again in 1859. 

WALLABOUT SCHOOL 

The children of the Wallabout settlement atten'ded 
the Bedford and the Bushwick Schools until a school- 
house was established prior to 1775 on the north side 
of the Wallabout Creek on land of the Johnson famil}', 
given for this purpose for a term of twenty-one years. 
Then the building was removed to land of Garrett 
Nostrand, to what is now known as Bedford and 
Flushing Avenues. It was a little one-story structure, 
painted red, containing one room, twenty feet square, 
and was heated by a Franklin wood stove, standing in 
the middle of the room, with its pipe thrust through 
the roof. When the schoolhouse had to be removed 
from its site, Garrett Nostrand converted it into a 
chicken coop. In 1838 a new building was erected on 
Classon Avenue, near Flushing Avenue, which was 
enlarged in 1842, and again in 1848. This school 
became Public School No. 4. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



99 



THE WYCKOFF FARM 

John Scudder was born in 1619. He emigrated 
from Grafton, England, in 1635, in company with 
his father and three brothers, to Salem, in the Colony 
of Massachusetts Bay. In 1652 he and two of his 
brothers came to Southold, on Long Island, and after 
residing there for several years removed to Hunting- 
ton. After a short stay at this place John came to 
Mispat Kills, where he resided until his death. As early 




WYCKOFF HOMESTEAD ■ "FLUSH (NG AVE 

NEAR CYPRESS AVE . 



as 1668 he Owned the mill-pond in Bushwick, on which 
Schenck's mill was later erected. This pond was sup- 
posed to be the cause of the fever and ague prevailing 
in this vicinity about that time. The Newtown Town 
court issued the following order: " Whereas there hath 
been complaint made to this court against John Scud- 
der, Sr., by several of the inhabitants for making a 
dam, which hath and still doth stop the passage of the 
water, at or near Fowler's Bridge or run, which is a 



lOO THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

great annoyance, and it is conceived a great cause of 
so much sickness among them, the court doth there- 
fore order that the said John Scudder shall forthwith 
cut the said dam, whereby the water may have free 
passage through it, under the penalty of five pounds 
sterling." The pond was long known as Scudder's 
Pond, and was always referred to in the boundary dis- 
pute between the two towns. John Scudder's only 
son, John, married in 1669 Johanna, the only daughter 
of Captain Richard Betts. John had two sons, John 
and Richard B., who, in 1700, sold the property and 
removed to New Jersey. Francis and Tunis Titus, 
sons of Titus Sirach de Vries, possessed land in this 
neighborhood. Francis was the owner of a farm in 
Bushwick that had been patented to Paul Richards 
in 1664. Tunis appears to have resided herein 1703; 
later he resided in Mansfield, N. J. Johannes Schenck, 
born in Holland in 1656, came to this country about 
1683. He lived at first in New Amsterdam, later in 
Midwout. In 171 1 he bought a mill and plantation of 
eighty-three acres in Bushwick from Tunis Titus, to 
which he removed. He died in 1748 and was buried 
on this farm. Johannes Schenck, Jr., born in 1691, 
bought, in 1713, of Timothy Wood a plantation of one 
hundred and eight acres in Bushwick, and also bought 
a plantation in Newtown. He died in 1729. Peter, 
his brother, bought of him his Newtown farm of one 
hundred and thirteen acres near the Bushwick line, 
and removed to it. He died in 1736. The grist-mill 
on the Schenck farm was located on the east branch of 
the Newtown Creek, and the ruins of the mill were 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN lOI 

Still Standing sixty years ago. Nicholas Wyckoff, 
born in 1743, purchased the Schenck farm in 1765, and 
resided upon it during the war. After the Battle of 
Long Island, while he was performing service in the 
American Army, British soldiers, passing the farm, 
seized and carried off the cattle. A Hessian officer 
was billetted upon the family, and the farmer's wife 
was sufficiently acquainted with the German language 
to make him understand that the seizure of the cattle 
left the children without anything to eat, and the 
officer was so moved by this statement that he went to 
headquarters at Maspeth and got all the animals back 
save one, which had already been killed. In 1781 Peter 
Wyckoff bought the Mansion House property on the 
Woodpoint Road from the children of the late Theo- 
dorus Polhemus. Nicholas Wyckoff was born at the 
Mansion House in 1799. His father moved back to 
the family homestead on Flushing and Cypress Ave- 
nues in 1814. Peter Wyckoff was born here in 1828, 
and died in the old house in 1910, which, though 
remodeled, is still the same structure that was occu- 
pied by the first member of the Wyckoff family, which 
owned the farm. In 191 1 the farm was sold and laid 
out in building lots. 

Near the homestead stood '* Ye Pole's house," the 
" most ancient Dutch house," mentioned in the Hemp- 
stead decision about the Bushwick Patent, on the east 
side of the head of Mispat Kil. 



I02 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

ROADS AND TRANSPORTATIONS 

During the first century and a half of the existence 
of the town of Bushwick most of the farmers started 
on their journey to Manhattan Island from the Wood- 
point, where the town dock was located. To it led 
the road that cut through the entire town from one 
end to the other. It was the main road in town, from 
which several lanes branched off, wending their way 
to the strand, the mill and the landing on Noorman's 
Kil. Although being one continuous road, it was 
known by two different names, to which a third one 
was added in 1704. It followed the line of the Old 
Rockaway foot-path, which led from the south over 
the hills toward Mispat Kil, at which latter place 
the Mispat tribe, a sub-tribe of the Rockaways, was 
located. It appears on documents soon after the ter- 
ritory was purchased by Kieft as the path leading to 
the Kils. From Bushwick village the one road dating 
from the earliest days of the settlement led toward the 
Woodpoint, while the other, coming into existence a 
little later, ran in the opposite direction. The begin- 
ning of the first road is still on the map and known as 
Old Woodpoint Road; it then turned in the centre of 
the block now bounded by Humboldt Street, Kings- 
land Avenue, Frost and Withers Streets to Debevoise 
Avenue; thence slanting toward Diamond Street, along 
that thoroughfare to Oakland Avenue and India Street ; 
running along India Street to a point below Manhat- 
tan Avenue, and finally slanted toward the inlet near 
Green and Franklin Streets. The other part was 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 103 

known as the New Bushwick Lane, leading into the 
New Lotts of Bushwick. After 1704 this road was 
known as Old Bushwick Road for over a century and 
a half. It followed the course of present Bushwick 
Avenue, Bushwick Place, Bushwick Avenue again to 
Ralph Street; following this street for one block to 
Evergreen Avenue; along this avenue to Madison 
Street, thence slanting to Central Avenue; crossing 
that avenue at Moffatt Street, it turned between pres- 
ent Chauncey and Pilling Streets and struck Central 
Avenue once more in the next block, and came to an 
end at the Green Hills. The Old Bushwick Road was 
connected with the Kings Highway to Jamaica, in 
accordance with an act of the General Assembly of 
1704, by the New Bushwick Road, along the Green 
Hills, now covered by the Cemetery of the Evergreens, 
until it cut diagonally through the block between 
Furman Avenue and Aberdeen Street, reaching the 
Jamaica Road near present Broadway. About a 
century ago the Williamsburgh ferry, at the foot of 
present Metropolitan Avenue was established, and 
soon after transferred to the foot of Grand Street, and 
in later years the ferry at foot of Broadway was the 
main outlet. Thus the traffic was diverted toward the 
Williamsburgh shore, and the oldest part of the town 
road was abandoned. 

The Newtown and Bushwick Bridge Company was 
incorporated in 1803. 

The Wallaboght and Brooklyn Turnpike Company 
was incorporated in 1805. 



I04 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

The Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike Company was 
incorporated in 1809. 

The Williamsburgh Turnpike Road and Bridge 
Company was incorporated in 1814. 

The Wallabout and Bedford Turnpike Company 
was incorporated in 1827. 

The Wallabout Canal Company was incorporated 
in 1828. 

The Wallabout Toll Bridge Company was incor- 
porated in 1835. This road led through Sands' Estate 
and" the Navy Yard to the bridge across Wallabout 
Creek, near the junction of Kent Avenue and River 
Street, now known as Wallabout Street. It was for a 
long time the only route from Brooklyn City Hall to 
the Eastern District. Small parts of the road are 
incorporated in the present plan of the city. 

The Flushing and Newtown Turnpike and Bridge 
Company was chartered in 1801. A bridge over Flush- 
ing Creek was constructed and a turnpike laid to 
Newtown village. 

In 1836 the Newtown and Bushwick Bridge and 
Turnpike-Road Company was incorporated, which 
continued the road to Williamsburgh by the second 
Penny Bridge, built on stone piers and the "Shell 
Road." 

The Maspeth Avenue Toll Bridge Company was 
incorporated in 1836. 

The Myrtle Avenue and Jamaica Plank Road Com- 
pany was incorporated in 1853. The road was five 
and a half miles in length, extending from Broadway 
to the Jamaica and Brooklyn Plank Road. It was 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 105 

seventy feet wide, with two planked tracks, each nine 
feet wide, and in the centre an earth grade track of 
the same width. The road was opened in 1854. The 
distance from Brooklyn City Hall to Jamaica via this 
road was nine and a quarter miles, or one and one- 
third miles less than over the old Jamaica Road. 

A first attempt had been made as early as 1840 by one 
Williams, a painter by trade, to run a stage from Peck 
Slip ferry through the different streets, picking up 
passengers on the way. After giving it a six months* 
trial he had to abandon the enterprise. At the time of 
consolidation Holder's stages ran from the terminus 
of the Fulton Avenue line, viz. : Holder's Three-Mile 
House to East New York, every hour from 6 a. m. to 
8 p. M. The fare was 6}( cents. Husted & Ken- 
dall's stages ran then from Peck Slip ferry via pres- 
ent Broadway to East New York. The fare was 
12^ cents. From Lawrence's Franklin Hotel, at 
Broadway and Myrtle Avenue, to East New York 
the fare was 6^ cents. From Grand Street, Hous- 
ton Street and Peck Slip ferries stages ran half- 
hourly via the Williamsburgh and Cypress Hills Plank 
Road to Cypress Hills Cemetery; the fare was 12}^ 
cents. Anson Powell's stages ran from East Brook- 
lyn or Wallabout to Fulton Ferry. The Williams- 
burgh, Brooklyn, Bushwick and New Lotts Railroad 
was organized June 29, 1853, to run from Williams- 
burgh to New Lotts. The company received the per- 
mission to operate a horse railroad for the term of 
twenty-one years. Then the Broadway Railroad Com- 
pany of Brooklyn was organized on August nth, 1858, 



Io6 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

with a capital of $200,000. This road operated the 
first horse-car line in the Eastern District via Broad- 
way from Peck Slip ferry to East New York in 1859. 
Within the next few years cars were run by other 
companies from the ferry via Johnson Avenue and 
Montrose Avenue to Bushwick Avenue; also via Grand 
Street to Bushwick Avenue. In 1867 the Bushwick 
Railroad Company started the Bushwick Avenue line 
from Grand Street ferry to Ridgewood Depot, and the 
Greenpoint line from Greenpoint ferry to the Cross- 
Roads. The Fulton Avenue line was running from 
Fulton Ferry to Brooklyn Avenue as early as 1855. 
The Myrtle Avenue line ran to Broadway in the same 
year, and the Flushing Avenue line to Throop Avenue 
in 1854, and was extended to Broadway in the follow- 
ing year. The Greenpoint line of the same company 
ran as far as Bushwick Creek in 1854, and was extended 
to Freeman Street in the following year. The other 
horse-car lines in the district began operation during 
the '70's. The Lexington Avenue Elevated line started 
to run in 1885; the Broadway Elevated line in 1888. 
The trolley cars took the place of the horse-cars in 
1894. On the elevated roads the electric power came 
into use in 1900. The South Side Railroad was opened 
in 1867, extending from Patchogue to Bushwick. 
From the Bushwick Depot cars were hauled through 
Boerum Street, Broadway and South Eighth Street to 
the South Side Railroad terminal at foot of South 
Eighth Street by dummy engines. In 1876 the part of 
the line running through Williamsburgh was discon- 
tinued, when the South Side Railroad was consoli- 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN T07 

dated with the Long Island Railroad. The New York 
and Manhattan Beach Railroad had its depot at foot of 
Quay Street, Greenpoint, formerly, and stations were 
located on Humboldt Street, at the junction of Grand 
Street and Metropolitan Avenue and on Montrose 
Avenue, 

THE POLICE FORCE 

The City of Williamsburgh had a force of twenty- 
seven policemen, nine men for each of the three wards, 
in 1852, There was also one constable on duty in 
each ward. After consolidation the Fifth Precinct of 
the enlarged city comprised the Thirteenth Ward, 
known as South Side, and the Fourteenth Ward, 
known as North Side; both together were popularly 
called Williamsburgh. The station house was at the 
corner of present Driggs Avenue and Metropolitan 
Avenue. The force consisted of thirty-six men. The 
Eastern District Police Court was held at " the Cells," 
on North Fifth Street. A new station house was built 
in 1859-1860 on North First Street and Bedford 
Avenue. In an extension to the main building on the 
ground floor were ten iron-grated cells. The Sixth 
Precinct comprised the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Wards, 
known as Dutchtown, and included the neighborhoods 
called " Picklesville" and " The Swamp." The station 
house was on Ten Eyck Street, between Manhattan and 
Graham Avenues. The force consisted of thirty-six 
men. A station house was, after awhile, erected on the 
south east corner of present Stagg Street and Bush- 
wick Avenue. The Sixth Sub-precinct was later 



Io8 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

formed of parts of the Sixth and Seventh Precincts, 
with a station house on Graham Avenue, between 
Frost and Richardson Streets. In its territory was 
included "The Green." The Seventh Precinct com- 
prised the Seventeenth Ward, or Greenpoint. The 
station house was located on Franklin Street, corner 
of Greenpoint Avenue. The force consisted of twelve 
men. A station house was later erected on Greenpoint 
and Manhattan Avenues. The Nineteenth Ward, or 
North Brooklyn, was then a part of the old Seventh 
Ward which was included in the Fourth Precinct, with 
a station house on Vanderbilt and Myrtle Avenues, 
Western District. All the rest of the territory included 
in the Eastern District was guarded by the ward police. 
The Ninth Ward included all the land bounded by 
Broadway, Flushing Avenue, Bedford Avenue, Atlan- 
tic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and the towns of Flat- 
bush and New Lotts, taking in part of Prospect Park. 
The portion of this large territory included in the 
present sketch embraces the present Twenty-first, 
Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth Wards. The Twenty- 
first Ward was known as Cripplebush, the Twenty- 
third as Bedford, and the Twenty-fifth Ward as New 
Brooklyn. Malboneville, Carsville, and Weeksville 
were neighborhoods in Bedford. The station house 
was on Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue. The force 
consisted of sixteen men. The Eighteenth Ward in- 
cluded the territory of the present Eighteenth, Twenty- 
seventh and Twenty-eighth Wards. The present Eigh- 
teenth Ward embraced Bushwick Green and Bushwick 
Cross-Roads; the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 109 

Wards, Bowronville. The force consisted of ten men. 
The Ninth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Six- 
teenth Precincts were formed in later years. The 
Ninth Precinct station house was built in 1864, near 
the corner of Gates and Marcy Avenues. The Twelfth 
Precinct station house was an old building. No. 1698 
Fulton Street, near Schenectady Avenue. The Thir- 
teenth Precinct station house was at the junction of 
Whipple Street and Flushing Avenue. The Four- 
teenth Precinct, formerly the Ninth Sub-precinct, had 
for its station house an old-fashioned two-story frame 
building on the corner of Broadway and Greene 
Avenue, surrounded by a large garden. The Six- 
teenth Precinct, formerly the Fifth Sub-precinct, had 
its station house on Clymer Street, near Kent Avenue. 
Later a new structure was reared on Clymer Street 
and Lee Avenue. The Second District Police Court 
was erected on Gates Avenue, near Reid Avenue, 
when the section consisted to a very large extent of 
farms and fields. The Third District Police Court 
was held on the second floor of a frame building on 
Humboldt Street and Montrose Avenue. 

FIRE DEPARTMENT 

The Williamsburgh Fire Department began in 1834, 
when two engines were purchased by the village and 
two engine houses erected. No. i, on North Second 
Street, giving shelter to Washington Company; No. 2, 
on South Second Street, was occupied by the Protec- 
tion Company. The Northsiders became known as 



I lO 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



*' The Roosters," from the emblem they selected, and 
the Southsiders as " Rocks." In 1836 a public cistern 
was constructed in front of the Reformed Dutch 
Church on present Bedford Avenue and South Second 




Street, and Mutual Truck Company No. i was organ- 
ized and located next door to Engine Company No. i, 
on North Second Street. In 1838 the sheriff levied 
upon the engines, under a judgment against the 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



I ir 



village, while they were on the way to a fire, and 
Abraham Meserole bought them at the sheriff's sale, 
and hired the engines out to the village for the next 
six years at a rental of $150 per annum. In 1844 the 
department was incorporated, and Engine Company 
No, 4 was organized, soon followed by Nos. 5, 6 and 
7, and Hose Company No. i. Public cisterns were 
built at various points, and a large fire bell procured. 







112 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

The Eastern District Fire Department was incorporated 
in 1857, and consolidated with the Western District Fire 
Department in 1869. The Firemen's Hall was on 
present Bedford Avenue, near South Second Street. 
The Thirteenth Ward bell-tower was on South Second 
Street, near Bedford Avenue; the Sixteenth Ward 
bell-tower, on Ten Eyck Street and Manhattan Ave- 
nue. About 1864 the Williamsburgh City Hall prop- 
erty, including the Thirteenth Ward bell-tower, was 
disposed of, and a new edifice, known as the Four- 
teenth Ward bell-tower was erected on Bedford Ave- 
nue and North Second Street. This tower was partly 
destroyed by fire in 1873. The Seventeenth Ward 
bell-tower was standing in the rear of the present 
police station on Greenpoint and Manhattan Avenues. 

PICNIC GROUNDS 

The Williamsburgh Garden was located between 
present Kent Avenue and the river shore and South 
Seventh and South Eighth Streets. A fine sandy 
beach extended from the Wallabout to Bushwick 
Creek, and the section was a favorite place for fishing 
and bathing. The road along the shore was lined with 
willow trees. Beyond the Cross-Roads was the Boule- 
vard Brewery Hotel, on Bushwick Avenue and present 
Noll Street; Strey's Hotel, on the junction of Myrtle, 
Central and DeKalb Avenues. The Boulevard Grove 
was on block bounded by Greene Avenue, Bleecker 
Street, Central and Evergreen Avenues, with hotel 
entrance on Bleecker Street, near Evergreen Avenue. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 13 

The Schuetzen Park was on the block bounded by Irving 
and Wyckoff Avenues, Grove and Ralph Streets, and 
then there were the several picnic parks on the other 
side of the county line, some of which have only 
recently been cut up into building lots. 

HOTELS 

(AT THE TIME OF CONSOLIDATION) 

American Hotel, Grand Street, near ferry. 

Branch Hotel, Bushvvick and Metropolitan Avenues. 

City Hotel, Broadway, 

Franklin Hotel, Myrtle Avenue and Broadway. 

Four Mile House, Fulton Street, corner of Reid 
Avenue. 

Fulton House, Bedford Avenue, near South Third 
Street. 

Gothic Hotel, Berry Street, near Broadway. 

Greenpoint Hotel, Franklin Street, corner of Huron 
Street. 

Kings County Hotel, Kent Avenue, corner of 
Broadway. 

Knickerbocker Hotel, Flushing Avenue, corner of 
Walworth Street. 

Peck Slip Hotel, Kent Avenue and Broadway. 

Philadelphia House, Bedford Avenue, near South 
First Street. 

Three Mile House, Fulton Street, near New York 
Avenue. 

Troutman's Hotel, Cypress Hills Plank Road. 



TI4 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Union Hotel, Grand Street, corner Union Avenue. 
Washington Hotel, Kent Avenue, near Division 
Avenue. 

THE PRESS 

Willtamsbu?^gh Gazette, 1835-185 4. First paper pub- 
lished in Williamsburgh. Started as a weekly; changed 
in 1850 to a daily. 

Witliamsburgh Democrat was the second. Started in 
1840; discontinued in 1847. 

Democratic Advocate, 1841. Appeared for six years. 

Daily Long Islander, 1845. Appeared for a few 
weeks. 

Williamsburgh Morning Post, 1847. 

Greenpoint Advertiser, 1847. 

The Williamsburgh Times, 1848. Changed later to 
Eastern District Daily Ti?nes, and is issued at the present 
time as Brookly7i Daily Times. 

The Independent Press, daily, 1850. 

The Long Island Zeitung, weekly, 1851. 

The Kings County Chronicle, weekly, 1851. 

The Long Island Fa7nily Circle, weekly, 1852. 

The Williamsburgh Telegraph, weekly, 1852. 

In 1854 The Long Lsland Anzeiger appeared, with 
offices at 98 Montrose Avenue, After a year it was 
discontinued. Ten years later it was again issued, 
still a weekly, and, after several changes, appears now 
as a daily, known as Brooklyner Freie Presse, with main 
office on lower Myrtle Avenue. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN TI5 

BANKS 

The Bank of Williamsburgh was organized in 1839. 
Its charter was to continue for one hundred years. 
The bank was situated on Grand Street and Kent 
Avenue. It went out of existence before a real begin- 
ning had been made. The Williamsburgh Savings 
Bank was organized in 185 1. The bank started busi- 
ness in the basement of a church on South Third Street 
and Bedford Avenue. The Farmers and Citizens 
Bank, on northwest corner of Broadway and Kent 
Avenue, was chartered in 1852. Before its building 
was completed the bank was housed on the second 
floor of the Peck Slip Hotel. Its affairs were wound 
up in 1868. The Williamsburgh City Bank was char- 
tered as a State bank in 1852. It was located on the 
corner of South Third and Fourth Streets; later, for 
more than half a century, at southwest corner of Kent 
Avenue and Broadway, and is now known as the First 
National Bank of Brooklyn, on Bridge Piazza, Broad- 
way and Havemeyer Street. Mechanics Bank of 
Williamsburgh was incorporated in 1853. It started 
business at 16 Grand Street, and is now known as 
Manufacturers National Bank, at Broadway and Berry 
Street. 

PECK SLIP 

Fort Amsterdam, on Manhattan Island, was situated 
upon a hill that descended to Pearl Street and Bowling 
Green. From the fort a path led to the ferry landing 
on the East River, from which point Cornelius Dirckse 



ii6 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



carried travelers in his rowboat over to the Long 
Island shore. Cornelius had settled here on a farm 
prior to 1642, and kept an inn for the convenience of 




|TrL.j_ I 



PECK SLIP NEWYORK- 

I 8 5 o 

his patrons. The landing on the Long Island side was 
also on ground owned by him. In 1654 the municipal 
government began to regulate the ferry service, which 
was, however, still carried on by this farmer. Along 
the path to the fort a blacksmith had established him- 
self to serve visitors from Long Island. His name 
was Cornelius Clopper, and his dwelling stood at the 
intersection of T'Maagde Paatje — the present Maiden 
Lane. The path received its name " de smit's vley, " 
or valley; corrupted later into Smith's Fly, from this 
fact. That part of it close to the shore is to-day 
part of Pearl Street, and the portion near the fort 
was Brouwer Street and Hoogh Street, now together 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



117 



forming Stone Street. Ferry Street is to this day the 
name of the thoroughfare leading from Gold Street 
to Peck Slip. Afterwards the Brooklyn ferry was 
removed farther south, and in 1836 a new ferry was 
started from the original landing on Peck Slip, run- 
ning to Williamsburgh. 



STATISTICS 



The area of the original Town of Bushwick was 
3,900 acres. 

1706. Improved lands assessed, 2,443 acres. 

1738. Population of Bushwick (including 78 slaves) 327 

798 

' 930 

••• 958 

including W'b'gh. 1,620 

3,314 
excluding " 1,295 

1,857 

3,739 
Williamsburgh 1,007 

estimated. . . . 3,000 

5,094 

^^33^ 

12,000 

30,780 

estimated. . .38,000 

48,367 



I8I0. 




1820. 




1825. 




1830. 




1835- 




1840. 




1845. 




1850. 




1830. 




1835. 




1840. 




1845- 




1847. 




1850. 




1852. 




1854. 





( ( 



(( 
( ( 



Il8 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

1834. Number of deaths in Williamsburgh 59 

1847. " " " 187 

1849. " " • " 36S 

1850. Number of dwellings in Williamsburgh. . 3,816 

Leslie's Brooklyn Directory for 1840-41 contained 
172 names of residents in the territory between present 
Broadway and Bedford Avenue, South of Flushing 
Avenue. The first Williamsburgh Directory was pub- 
lished by Henry Payson in 1847, and continued in 
1848 and 1849. It was followed by Samuel and T. F. 
Reynolds' Directory in 1850 to 1854. After that Smith's 
Brooklyn Directory was issued for 1854-55, 1855-56, 
etc., for some years in two separate parts, for, as the 
publisher says, in view of the small amount of busi- 
ness intercourse between the two sections, it was 
thought expedient to compile the names of the Western 
and Eastern Districts in distinct departments. Rey- 
nolds' Williamsburgh Directory contained number of 
names: 1850, 5,300; 1851, 5,603; 1852, 7,345; 1853, 
8,518; 1854, 10,925. 

Reynolds' Greenpoint and Bushwick Directory, 
1854, 1,318. 

Reynolds' North Brooklyn Directory, 1852, 52. 

Each name represented a family of from four to 
six members. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 19 



WARDS 

Thirteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from First 
Ward of Williamsburgh. 

Fourteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Sec- 
ond Ward of Williamsburgh. 

Fifteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Third 
Ward of Williamsburgh. 

Sixteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Third 
Ward of Williamsburgh. 

Seventeenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Town 
of Bushwick. 

Eighteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Town 
of Bushwick. 

Nineteenth Ward. Organized in 1856, from old 
Seventh Ward of Brooklyn. 

Twenty-first Ward. Organized in 1868, from old 
Ninth Ward of Brooklyn. 

Twenty-third Ward. Organized in 1873, from old 
Ninth Ward of Brooklyn. 

Twenty-fifth Ward. Organized in 1873, from old 
Ninth Ward of Brooklyn. 

Twenty-sixth Ward. Organized in 1886, from Town 
of New Lots. 

Twenty-seventh Ward. Organized in 1892, from 
old Eighteenth Ward. 

Twenty-eighth Ward. Organized in 1892, from old 
Eighteenth Ward. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 121 

MAP SHOWING THE ORIGINAL 
PLANTATIONS 

This map has been made with the only object of 
giving some idea of the location of the original 
plantations, and no attempt has been made to trace the 
bounds of lands described in the patents that are on 
record. The case of Jan the Swede may be taken as 
an illustration. He had settled here among the red- 
skins before they sold the land to the West India 
Company. Most likely the land that he had under 
cultivation was later included in Hans Hansen's patent. 
The Gysbert Rycken patent is a similar case. This 
patent seems to be identical with the one granted to 
Adam Mott in 1646. After several sales the property 
came into the hands of Jacob Steendam in 1653. It 
was again granted in 1667 to Humphrey Clay, 
"because Steendam had been absent and gone out of 
the country for the space of eight years, etc., and no 
plantation should lie waste and unmanured, etc." 
Clay may have cultivated a part of the original Gys- 
bert Rycken patent, while another part had been given 
for the use of the pioneer settlers of Boswijck village. 
However, Clay is, in 1706, recorded among the land- 
owners as possessing fifty-two acres of land. Patents 
were granted freely in the earliest times, but the 
patentees in many cases never occupied the lands 
granted to them; furthermore, land being plentiful, 
the plantations changed hands quite often. After the 
land was cleared of trees and underbrush it took at 
least a year before a crop was produced. If disap- 



122 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

pointed, the planter tried his luck at some other point 
which seemed to be more promising. If he could get a 
buyer for his old plantation, he disposed of it; if not, 
the West India Company gave it to some newcomer. 
Exchanges of land were also made, whenever found 
convenient. To give the outlines of the old patents is 
an impossibility at this late day; it would be guess- 
work at the best. The early settlers had no time to 
record these things for posterity. Many of them 
would not have been able to do it. The only certain 
way to distinguish the lines of the several plantations 
was by " the old marks of the West India Company " — 
as the patents say — meaning the surveyor's blaze on 
trees in the wilderness. They are no more. Hills 
have been leveled, brooks and streams have been filled 
in, and the hooks and necks of land have disappeared, 
and none of the descriptions of the lands in the patents 
will fit the present-day conditions of the same pieces of 
land. Besides the "marks of the company" there 
were a few local distinctions, which were used to 
describe the location of lands within the territory of 
the towns of Brooklyn and Bushwick. These were: 
Marechavvieck, the Indian village, on the site later 
occupied by the village of Breukelen, Rinnegaconck, 
the plantation of Rapalie, the Cripplebush, being the 
swamp lying between the Wallabout Bay and New- 
town Creek in the central part of Bushwick, Mispat 
Kil, the later Newtown Creek, Gowanis Kil, now 
Gowanus Creek, the Wallabout, and the hills, part of 
the " backbone of Long Island." In this manner any 
plantation in the later Williamsburgh was in the 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 23 

early days described as situated between Mispat Kil 
and Rinnegaconck, or the Waliabout, or the east hook 
of Marechawieck. Bedford was at the Waliabout, in 
the rear of Rapalie's plantation. In the earliest 
patents even the plantations along Newtown Creek 
were described as being opposite Rinnegaconck, for 
the reason that there was nothing between the two 
localities to serve as a landmark. Later on it w^as 
possible to give neighboring plantations as boundaries. 

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 

Bushwick existed as a town as early as 1661; at 
which time magistrates were appointed by Director- 
General Stuyvesant; but the territory of the town was 
not defined by law then. The settlers that had located 
on the land purchased by Director-General Kieft from 
the Canarsees in 1638 came together, from time to time, 
to regulate their local affairs, and these men, thus 
associated for the purposes of government, constituted 
the town. Under the first English governor, Nicolls, 
delegates from the several towns were assembled at 
Hempstead to settle the boundaries of the towns, and 
the latter were required to take out patents for the 
land occupied by them, and thus in 1667 the bounda- 
ries of the town of Bushwick were laid down. The 
territory of the first village of Williamsburgh was, 
however, not included within the limits of the town. 
In Governor Dongan's patent of 1687 the same omis- 
sion is noticed. Dr. Stiles, mentioning this in his 
history of the City of Brooklyn, says: "This was not 



124 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

an oversight; this part was surveyed and owned by the 
West India Company." Under the English rule the 
landowners elected a constable and eight overseers. 
In 1788 the town of Bushwick was incorporated by the 
legislature, at the same time when all the existing 
towns in the State were incorporated. Of the various 
villages and hamlets within the limits of the Eastern 
District the villages of Williamsburgh and East New 
York were the only ones that were incorporated by 
the legislature. Williamsburgh was incorporated in 
1827 ; it still remained a part of the town of Bushwick, 
but it now had a village government as well as a town 
government. In 1835 the village limits were extended, 
and in 1840 the village was separated from Bushwick 
and incorporated as a town; the village and town 
boundaries being identical. The growth of Williams- 
burgh was so great that it felt the need of a city gov- 
ernment, and in 1851 a city charter was secured, 
which became effective January ist, 1852. The 
town of Bushwick and the City of Williamsburgh 
went out of existence when both of these municipal 
corporations became parts of the enlarged City of 
Brooklyn on January ist, 1855. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 25 

THE RIDGEWOOD SECTION IN QUEENS- 
BOROUGH OF TO-DAY 

The Ridgewood section in Queensborough of 
to-day embraces the territory bounded by the Brooklyn 
Borough line, Flushing Avenue, Mount Olivet Avenue 
to Lutheran Cemetery, going around the cemetery the 
line takes in Glendale village and runs along the 
range of hills covered by Cypress Hills and Evergreen 
Cemeteries to the Brooklyn line. The section em- 
braces the old farms known as Wyckoff, Covert, 
Onderdonck, Way, Hulst, Ring, Van Alst, Edsall, 
Debevoise, Backus, Lahr, Tompkins, Bergen, Van 
Nostrand, McCormick, Denton, Snediker, Cooper, 
etc., farms. It includes within its limits the more 
modern neighborhoods: Wyckoff Heights, Germania 
Heights, Metropolitan, Fresh Pond, St. James Park, 
Melvina, East Williamsburgh, Ridgewood Heights, 
Ridgewood Park, Evergreen and Glendale. Part of 
the Debevoise land, the Ring, Wyckoff and Meyerose 
farms are now being improved. Fourteen and a half 
acres of the Debevoise estate in Evergreen, fronting 
on Cooper Avenue, Harmon Avenue, and the Man- 
hattan Beach Division of the Long Island Railroad 
were sold in 1909 for close on $100,000. The Ring 
farm consisted of sixteen acres of land on Fresh Pond 
Road, between about Elm Avenue and a line just 
beyond the Lutheran Cemetery Railroad tracks. Fred 
Ring sold to the Brooklyn City Railroad Company 
the right of way through the farm to run the dummy 



126 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

line from Ridgewood Depot to the cemetery, which is 
now used by the surface extension of the Myrtle 
Avenue Elevated Road. The white frame-house on 
Fresh Pond Road, south of the railroad tracks, the 
home of the Ring family for half a century, was torn 
down about 1910. The Wyckoff farm was sold by the 
heirs of Peter Wyckoff in 1910. The purchasers of the 
property erected houses along Linden Street and Gates 
Avenue, on the block adjoining Cypress Avenue; and 
gradually the entire farm, which runs as far north as 
Flushing Avenue, will be built up. The Meyerose 
farm includes the four blocks between Onderdonck, 
Woodward and Elm Avenues on the south and Wood- 
bine Street on the North, and four blocks west of 
Onderdonck Avenue, adjoining the old Ring farm. 
A half century ago the South Williamsburgh School 
District embraced the land between the Brooklyn line 
and Trotting Course Lane and the New Lots line and 
Metropolitan Avenue. The little schoolhouse on 
Cooper's Road — the present Cooper Avenue — accom- 
modated forty pupils in its only room. In 1870 an 
extension was built in the rear, adding another room 
to the school. In 1883 the building was raised, and 
two additional rooms provided in the lower part. 
The edifice is still standing. In the '70's the School 
District, also known as School District No. 9, was 
divided, when a small schoolhouse was erected in 
Glendale village. In 1892 a Union Free School No. 9 
was built on Bergen Avenue, between Rathjen Avenue, 
Henry and John Streets. At the time of consolidation 
this school became P. S. No. 68 of Queens Borough. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 127 

The small frame building is still standing in the 
school yard of the new school. In 1903 the school 
had twenty-four classes on part time; the old Ridge- 
wood Hotel, an antiquated frame structure, was leased 
in 1907 for the term of three years. Ground was 
acquired by the city near by, and the new school- 
house erected on Bergen Avenue and Walter Street 
with twenty-four class-rooms, accommodating twelve 
hundred pupils. Public School No. 67 is located on 
Central Avenue and Olmstead Place, Glendale; No. 68, 
on Bergen and Rathjen Avenue, Evergreen; No. 71, 
on Forest Avenue, East Williamsburgh; No. 77, on 
Centre and George Streets, Ridgewood Park; No. 81, 
on Cypress Avenue, from Ralph Street to Bleecker 
Street; No. 86, on Old Flushing Avenue, near Grand 
Street, Maspeth; No. S8, on Elm Avenue and Fresh 
Pond Road, Ridgewood Heights; No. 91, contem- 
plated, on Myrtle and Washington Avenues, Glendale, 
and No. 93, contemplated, on Putnam Avenue and 
Woodbine Street, Ridgewood Heights. Ivanhoe Park 
Hose Company was formed in 1896 with thirty mem- 
bers. In the same year the name was changed to 
Ivanhoe Fire Hook and Ladder Company No. 10, and 
became a part of the Newtown Fire Department. The 
company now has sixty members. 

Churches 

St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church and Parochial 
School. 

St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church and Parochial 
School. 



128 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

St. Matthias Roman Catholic Church. 

Apostolic Lutheran Church, Cornelia Street. 

St. John's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
Linden Street and Covert Avenue. 

German Evangelical Lutheran Zion Church, Him- 
rod Street and Cypress Avenue. 

Covenant Lutheran Church, 218 Elm Avenue. 

St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church, Har- 
man vStreet and St. Nicholas Avenue. 

Ridsrevvood Reformed Church, Smith Street and 
Rathjen Avenue. 

German Evangelical Reformed Church, Onder- 
donck Avenue and Grove Street. 

Holy Cross Protestant Episcopal Church, St. 
Nicholas Avenue and Himrod Street. 

Annunciation Protestant Episcopal Church, Myrtle 
and Cooper Avenues. 

German Methodist Episcopal Church, Woodward 
Avenue and Grove Street. 

Middle Village Methodist Episcopal Church, on 
Metropolitan Avenue. 

Glendale Methodist Episcopal Church, Washington 
Avenue. 

Ridgewood Heights Church of Christ, Presby- 
terian, Gates and Grandview Avenues. 

Wyckoff Heights Presbyterian German Church, 
Wyckoff Avenue and Harman Street. 

Wyckoff Avenue Baptist Church, South Evergreen. 



APPENDICES 



APPENDIX I. 

Indian Deed of Bushwick. 

We, the Director-General and Council of New 
Netherland, residing on the Island of Manhates, in 
Fort Amsterdam, under the jurisdiction of their High 
Mightinesses, the Lords States General of the United 
Netherlands, and the Incorporated West Indies Com- 
pany, Chamber at Amsterdam, acknowledge and 
declare that on this day, the day underwritten, before 
us in their proper persons appeared and came forward 
Kakapoteyno, Menqueuw and Suwiran, chiefs of 
Keskaechquerem, in the presence of the subscribing 
witnesses and voluntarily and most deliberately de- 
clare with consent of the tribe (gemeente), for and in 
consideration of eight fathoms of duffels, eight fathoms 
of wampum, twelve kettles, eight adzes [adzes — scrap- 
ing implements used in dressing deer skins, etc.] and 
eight axes, with some knives, beads, awl — [awl — a 
sharpened piece of metal used as a perforator and 
gauge in canoe-making] blades (which they acknowl- 
edge to have received into their hands and power to 
their full satisfaction and contentment before the exe- 
cution hereof), to have ceded, transported, conveyed 



130 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

and transferred as they do hereby transport, cede, con- 
vey and transfer in true, right and free property, to 
and for the behoof of the Honorable Directors of the 
General Incorporated West India Company, Chamber 
at Amsterdam, a certain parcel of land situate on 
Long Island, south of the Island Manhates, extending 
in the length from George Rapaelje's plantation, called 
Rinnegaconck, eastward one mile and a half to Mes- 
paechtes, and in breadth from the East River about one 
mile into the Cripplebush of said Mespaechtes, and 
that with all the action and right to them belong- 
ing, etc. 

In witness these present are confirmed with our 
usual signature and seal, depending herefrom. 

Done at the Island Manhates, Fort Amsterdam, this 
first August, Ao. 1638. 

MaURITS TaNSEN, ) rj^., 

■^ \ WitTiesses. 

Claes van Elslant, ) 

To my knowledge. 

CoRNELis Van Tienhoven, 

Secretary. 

APPENDIX II. 

Governor Nicolls' Patent of Bushwick of 
October 25TH, 1667. 

Bounded with the mouth of a certain creek or kill^ 
called Maspeth Kill, right over against Dominie Hook, 
soe their bounds goe to David Jocham's Hook, then 
stretching upon a southeast line along the said kill^ 
they come to Smith's Island, including the same,. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 131 

together with all the meadow ground or valley there- 
unto belonging; and continuing the same course, they 
pass along by the fence of the woodside, soe to Thomas 
Wandall's meadow; from whence, stretching upon a 
southeast by south line, along the woodland of the 
kills, taking in the meadow or valley there, then pass 
along near upon a southeast by south line six hundred 
rod into the woods; then running behind the lots as 
the woodland lyes, southwest by south and out of the 
said woods, they goe again northwest to a certain 
small swamp; from thence they run behind the New 
Lotts to John the Swede's meadow; then over the 
Norman's Kill to the west end of his old house; from 
whence they goe alongst the river, till you come to the 
mouth of Maspeth Kill and David Jocham's Hook, 
whence they first begun. 

APPENDIX III. 

Boundary Lines of Bush wick Township Taken 
From the Governor Thomas Dongan's Patent 
of February, 1687. 

The Towne is bounded with the mouth of a certain 
creek or kill, commonly called Maspeth Kills, right 
over against the Dominie's Hook so ye bounds go to 
David Jochem's Hook, then stretching upon a south- 
east line alongst the said kill they come to Smith's 
Island, including the same, together with all the 
meadow ground or valley thereunto belonging, and 
continuing the same course, they pass along by the 



132 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

fence of the wood side, soe to Thomas Wandall's 
meadow; from whence, stretching upon a southeast 
by south line alongst the wood and to the kill, taking 
in the meadow or valley lying there, they pass unto 
the land heretofore belonging to Ryck Loedecker, 
deceased, and soe stretching again neare upon a south- 
east by south line, six hundred rodd into the woods, 
then running behind the Lotts as the woodland lies, 
south west and by south, and out of the said woods; 
they goe again north west to a certain small swamp; 
from thence they run behind the New Lotts to Jan the 
Swede's meadow, so along by a small kil or creek to a 
corner or hook of Jan Cornelissen's meadow, then 
over the Norman's Kill to the west end of his old 
house; from whence they go alongst the river till 
you come to the mouth of Maspeth Kills, and David 
Jochem's Hook, aforementioned, where they first be- 
gun. 

APPENDIX IV. 

Muster Roll of Bushwick Militia in 1663. 

Captain: Ryck Lydecker (Schout) 
Ensign: Jan Tilje Casperse 
Secretary: Boudwyn Manout 
Sergeant: Evert Hedeman 
Corporals: Peter Jans Wit 
Jan Hendricks 
Alexander Conquerare 
Privates: Gysbert Tunissen (Schepen) 

Barent Joost (Schepen) 

David Jochemsen 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 33 

Privates: Hendrick Grever 
Jan Mailjaert 
Andries Barentse 
Jan Parys 
Evert Mauritz 
Charles Fontain 
Jan Cornel Zeieuw 
Corns. Jans Zeieuw 
Joost Caspersen 
Johannes Caspersen 
Melle Caspersen 
Frangois de Puy 
Jan Williams Esselstein 
William Traphagen 
Barent Gerretse (Drummer) 
Dirck Volkertse 
Volkert Dirckse 
Jan Botzer 
Wessel Gerrits 
Nicolaes Jones 
Tunis Martin 
Carel Carelsen 
Claes Wolf 
Wouter Gysbertsen 
Jacob Gysbertsen 
Caesar Barentse 
Carel Reyckweyl 
Frangois d'Meyer 
Antoin d'Meyer 



134 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



APPENDIX V. 

Rate List of Bushwick, 1675. 

Real estate at £^2 per morgen; personal estate, 
;^i8 each man; horses, ^3 to ;2^i2; oxen, £^(i\ cows, 
^2^1. 10 to ;2^5, according to age; hogs, jQ\\ sheep, 

^0.8.6. 

Personal. 

Pieter Parmentir ;^i48.io J^^^^A- 

Jan Cornelise Dame 124. 

Joost Koeckwytt 99. 

Pieter Janse Witt 175.10 

Woutter Gisberse 96. 

Jan Paris 86. 

Charles Fonttein 122. 

Euert Hedeman 53. 

Jacques Cossardt 31. 

Pieter Schamp 28. 10 

Adriaen de la Forge 

Gisbert Theunisse 129. 

Charles Housman 45. 

Stas de Groott 

Cornells Jansen 37. 10 

Jan Cornelise Zeuw 54. 

Caspert Jansen 73. 

Pietter Jansen Zeuw 

Oufre Kley 126. 

Jan Jansen 

Jan Jorese 80. 10 

Alexander Coqueuertt .... 32. 

Volkert Dierckse 129. 



Real 


Total. 


^64 


;^2I2.IO 


56 


180. 


30 


129. 


100. 


275.10 


Z(^ 


132. 


46 


132. 


80. 


202. 


27 


80. 


10 


41. 


6. 


34.10 




25.10 


44 


173- 


22. 


67. 




35- 


8 


45-IO 


34 


%Z. 


6 


19- 




40. 


24. 


150. 




39.10 


10. 


90. 10 


4 


Z^- 


50 


179. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



135 



Personal. 

Jan Ariaensen ;^44- 

Arie Cornelise Vogel 

Amador Foupier 47. 

Seimen Haeckx 

Jabecq Jansen 

Nelttie Jans 

Jan Jansen Kuiper 

Dierck Volckerse 88. 

Jabecq Dierckse 43. 10 

Hendrick Barense Smitt. . . 154. 

Joseph Hall 

Willem Jacobse 

Theunis Gisberse Bogaertt 



Total valuation ^3174. 10 

Tax at one stiver per £^ amounted to ;^i3.4.6, or in 
current pay, Guilders 154. 14. 8. 

The number of men who, in 1673, took the oath of 
allegiance to the newly established Dutch Government 
under Anthony Colve was 35. 



Real. 


Total. 


^6. 


;^50- 




37.10 


44. 


91. 




18. 




18. 




II. 




18. 


72. 


160. 


10. 


53-IO 


40. 


194. 




23- 




18. 


16. 


16. 



APPENDIX VI. 
Rate List of Bushwick, 1676 

Personal. Real 

1 Gisbert Theunisse ;£"i38.o8 ;^44 

2 Wouter Gisberttse 109.14 36 

3 Volkert Dierckse i43-i8 50 

4 Charles Housman 75.iS 22 

5 Cornells Jansen 32.08 8 

6 Pieter Jansen 



Total. 

^182.08 

145-14 
193.18 

97.18 

40.08 
47- 



136 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Personal. Real. Total. 

7 Claes Cornelise ;£28. 

8 De La Forge . 40- 

9 (Manuscript destroyed) 

10 (Name illegible). ..... .^136. ^80. 216. 

11 Albert Hendrickse 18. 

12 Jan Caerlse 18. 

13 Amador Foupier 18. 

14 Jan Cornelise Zeuw . . . 54.02 34. 88.02 

15 Evertt Hedeman 46. 27. 73. 

16 Jan Korom 64.08 6. 70.08 

17 Alexander Coquer 19.18 4. 23.18 

18 Jan Lesquier 103. 56. 159. 

19 Capt.Pietter Jansen Witt 206.03 i°°- 306.03 

20 Jabecq Dierckse 45- 18 20. 65.18 

21 Pietter Schamp 34- 10 18. 52.10 

22 Joost Coeckvvytt 90.10 30. 120.10 

23 Seimen Haeckx 18. 

24 Mettle Jansen (Manuscript destroyed) 

25 Jan Jansen " " 

26 Hendrick Baerentse. . . . 141. 40. 181. 

27 Jans Cornells Damen . . 113.03 56. 169.03 
28- Jans Ariaense 37-04 6. 43-04 

29 Cornells HarmenseVogel 37.o5 

30 Pietter Parmentie 130.10 40. 170.10 

31 Jacob Laroille (Manuscript destroyed) 

32 Philip Berckelo 18. 

;^;^ Mattheis Jansen 18. 

34 Theunis Gisberttse Bogaert 16. 16. 

35 Oufie Cley 102. 24. 126. 

Total valuation ^2g6o. 14 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 37 

Rated at id. on the pound sterling, amounted to 
£\2. 6s. 9d. 



APPENDIX VII. 

Rate List of Bushwick, 1683. 

Personal, Real. Total. 

Constable Wouter Ghys- 

berts Verscheur ^i44- ^44- ^iS8. 

Jacob Jansen 118. 2>^. 154. 

Pieter Jansen Meet 18. 

Albert Hendrickzen 30. 

Joost Kockuyt 112. 06. 6 44. 156.06.6 

Charel Fonteyn 175. 122. 297. 

Pieter Jansen Wit 243 07.6 100. 343.07.6 

Jacques Cossart 78. 2i^. 114. 

Pieter Jans Loy 46. 10 

Onvre Klay 60. n^d. 96. 

Claes Cornelis Kat 51. 26. 77. 

Jan Cornelis Zeeu 28. 

Cornelis Jansen Loy.... 88.05.6 21. 109.05.6 

Adriaen Laforse 68.05.6 17. 85.05.6 

Jacob Dirckx 44. 

Simon Haecx 18. 

Joost Dury. 84. 32. 116. 

Pieter Parmentier (in- 
cluding a mill est. at 50. 24. 58. 82. 

Pieter Jacobsen 23. 26. 49. 

Volckert Dircksen 100.14 loo- 200.14 

Jan Miserol. . . . , 86.10 64. 150.10 

Jan Miserol the younger 36. 8. 44. 



138 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Personal. Real. Total. 

Jan Loquier ^m. £ 56. ^£"167. 

Neeltje Jans 11. 10 

Theunis Ghysberts 16. 16. 

Hendrick Barents Smit. 32. 32. 

Joost Adriaen's Widow. 49.10 50. 99.10 

Jannitje Schamp 13. 

Michel Parmentier 85. 60. 145. 

Total valuation ;^293i. 

The rate amounted to £,^2. 4s. 3d. 



APPENDIX VIII. 

List of Men in Bushwick Who Took the Oath of 
Allegiance in 1687. 

Volkert Dirckse native 

Pieter Janse de Witt 35 years in the country 

Pieter Daniel 10 

Adriaen La Forge 15 

Jost Kockuyt 27 

Isaac La Febre 4 

Pieter Schamp 15 

Wouter Gysbert Verschier. ... 38 

Pieter Loyse native 

Jacques Fontaine " 

Pelgrom Klock 31 years in the country 

Volkert Witt native 

Daniel Waldron 35 years in the country 

Simon Haeckx 16 " " " 

Cornelis Loyse 36 " *' ** 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 39 

Jean Lequie 30 years in the country 

Alexander Hendrickse 25 " '* 

Jean Miseroll, Junior 20 " " 

Claes Cornelissen Kat 25 " " 

Michiel Palmentier 23 " *' 

Vincent Bale 4 " " 

Pieter Para 28 " " 

Johanis Fontaine native 

Jean de Consilie 25 years in the country 

Josst Durie 12 " " " 

Jan Janse 36 " " '* 

Jacob Janse native 

Pieter Simonse " 

Jacob Dirckse Rosekrans " 

Jochem Ver Schuer " 

Hendrick Ver Schuer " 

Laurens Koeck 26 years in the country 

APPENDIX IX. 

From the Census of Kings County about 1698. 

A list of all the freeholders, their wives, children, 
apprentices and slaves within the Kings County, on 
Nassauw Island. 

[Note. — " E." affixed to the name means English; "F.," 
French.] 

IN THE TOWN OF BOSWIJCK. 

Men. Women. Chil- Appren- Slaves, 
dren. tices. 

Pieter Jans Wit i .. i .. 5 

Dorothea Verschuur i i i 3 

JoosDure(F. ) i i 



140 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



Men. 

Albert Hendrickse i 

Hendrick Willemse i 

Abraham Detooy (F.). . . i 

Jannetse Schamp . . . 

Jan Sevenhooven i 

David Sprong i 

Phillip Volkertsz i 

Pieter Willemse i 

Jacobus Looyse i 

Auke Reynierse i 

Jochem Verschuur i 

Willem West (E.) i 

Nicholaes Brouwer i 

Gabriel Sprong. . i 

Pieter Looyse i 

Lourens Hook 2 

Joos Dure, Senior (F.) . . i 

Michiel Parmentier (F.) . 2 

Pieter Usilia i 

Fredrick Symonse i 

Hendk Jansz Van Ames- 

foort I 

Jan Muserol (F. ) i 

Thomas Baude (F. ) i 

Cornells Looyse 2 

Jacob Bibon (F.). . i 

Jan Miserol, Junior (F. ) 2 

Anna Fontain , 

Hendricus De Foreest. . . i 

Theunis Woertman i 



Women. Chil- Appren- Slaves, 
dren. tices. 

3 4 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



Men. Women. Chil- Appren- 
dren. tices. 



Barent Gerritz Vlasbeek r 

Anna Volkertse 

Dirck Volkertze i 

Pieter Pra i 

Humphry Clay (E.) i 

Abraham Brouvver i 

Alexandre Coquer (F.). . i 

Jurian Coljer 2 

Jean Lescuier (F.) 3 

Juriaen Nagel i 

Charles Fontaine (F.). . . 2 

Catelyntie Cats 

Hendrick Janse 2 

Arent Andriesse i 

Dirck Andriesse i 



51 



141 

Slaves. 



49 141 



52 



APPENDIX X. 

The Improved Lands in Bushwick in 1706, as then 
IN Fence, were as Follows: 

Owners. Acres. 

Hackert Hendricks' Widow 186 

Peter Praa 68 

Humphrey Clay q2 

Peter De Wit's Widow 96 

Charles Fountain cq 

Teunis Wortman py 



142 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Owners. Acres. 

Francis Titus 126 

James Bobyne 50 

John MeseroU 170 

Jurian Hagell 95 

Cornelis Van Katts loS 

John Luquier loS 

John Luquier's Mill 25 

Philip Volkerts 54 

Peter Loysten 50 

Joost Camp 40 

Jochem Verscheur 60 

Auck Hegeman 40 

Peter Williams 60 

Joost Dyeye 107 

Garret Cooke 50 

Cobus Collier 20 

William West 14 

Derick Andriese 14 

Cornelius Laynson 52 

Hendrick Jansen 54 

Gysbert Bogert 10 

Dorothy Verscheur 70 

Gabon Laquill 36 

Ann Andriessen 30 

Gabriel Sprong 16 

Teunis Titus 47 

Hendrick De Forest 14 

Jacobus Jansen 20 

Charles Folkerts no 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 45 

Owners. Acres. 

John Hendrick 26 

Frederic Symonds 61 

Philip Nagel 13 

Total acres ... 2 , 443. 

Chas. L. Fountaine, ) . 

' y Assessors. 
Peter Praa, ) 

Peter Cortilleau, Surveyor. 



APPENDIX XI. 



BusHwicK Division of the Regiment of Militia in 
Kings County, 1715. 



France Titus, Captain 
Frederick Simson, Lieut. 
Tunis Wortman, Ensign 
Cornelius Van Katt 
John Missarole 
Aren Anderson 
Joras Isolin 
Johannis Albertsen 
Johannis Van Katt 
Isaac Laquer 
Peter Coljor 
Peter Laquer 
Isaac Loise 

Total, 



Abraham Laquer 
David Van Katt 
Charles Coenertt 
Peter Conselje 
Jacobus Cosine 
Simon Derje 
Andresse Andresin 
Johannis Coljor 
Garrett Sprong 
John Sprong 
Jacobus Coljor 
Dirick Adrajanse 
Johannis Bookhoutt 
26. 



144 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

APPENDIX XII. 

A List of all the Inhabitants of the Township 

OF BusHWYCK — Both White and Black — 

Males and Females, in 1738. 



THE NAMES OF THE "^ | 

masters OF HOUSE -^^ 

OR mistress, etc. S o 



Johannes Schenck .... i 

David Sprongh 3 

Marijtie Schenck 4 

Jannitie Van Ende. ... 6 

Simon Dorijie 3 

Charel Dorijie 2 

Folkert Folkertse i 

Necklaas Folkertse ... i 

Jacobus Cozyn 2 

Pieter Fonck ., 4 

Gertruy Wortman .... 2 

Abraham Coeck i 

Joost Dorijie. i 

Jacob Pieterse 2 

Arent Stockholum. ... 2 

Daniel Bodet 2 

Jurijen Nagel 2 

Hendrick Vande Wte. i 

Femmetie Anders 2 

Abraham Liquir 4 



CO 

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a 


S2 

tL, 


0) 

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l-H 

0) 

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c 


0. 


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2 





I 


3 

















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I 


I 


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I 


2 





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2 


I 








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4 


2 


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2 


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2 


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3 


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2 















THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 45 



I ^ 1^ I I 

THE NAMES OF THE t^ >! B^ 3 ^23 

MASTERS OF HOUSE -3 « 2^2 ° "^sj 

OR MISTRESS, ETC. S ^ i5 -2 « ^ I^ o 

Tryntie Calijer 20200 

Jacobus Calijer i o i i o 

Pieter Wit 3 i 4 3 i 

Johannis Pieter 10200 

David Cats 10230 

Alexander Berd 2 o 2 o i 

Pieter Praa i o i o 4 

Derek Wortman 20102 

Frans Tijtus 2 i i 2 3 

Thomas Fardon 5 o 2 2 3 

James Bobijn i o i o i 

Andries Stockholum.. 2 i 2 3 i 

Johannis Calijer 30410 

Jacobus Calijer 20300 

Johannis Boechut 3 o 5 i i 

Tuenis Rapellie i o i 2 i 

Abraham Dorijie 4 2 3 2 o 

Leffert Leffertse i o i 3 i 

Jan Mesrol 4 i 4 2 i 

Pieter Consellie 2 2 5 o o 

Johannis Aberse 3 o 6 i i 



en 


B> 
(X, 2 


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92 27 91 39 31 II 27 9 
Compt. : 325 Ziele (Souls). 



146 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

APPENDIX XIII. 

A List Taken by Captain Francis Titus, of Bush- 
wick, IN 1755, OF the Slaves Belonging to the 
Inhabitants of His District is as Follows: 

Owner's name. Male. Female. 

John MisroU t i 

John Liequare i 

George Durje i i 

Folkert Folkertsen 2 2 

William Bramebosch 2 i 

John Roseveldt i 

Jacob MisroU i 

Nicholas Lefferts i 

Catherine Lefferts 

Abraham Liequere i 

Marritje Woertman i 

David Van Cots i 

Theodorus Polhemus i i 

Daniel Burdet 2 2 

Jacob Durje i i 

Peter Lot i 

Abraham Schenck 4 i 

Evert Van Gelder i 

Nector Folkertsen i i 

Andris Stucholm i 

Peter Consel je i 

Capt. Francis Titus i 2 

Abraham Miller i 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 147 

APPENDIX XIV. 

Taxable Valuation, 
bushwick. 

Real Personal 

Estate. Estate. 

1805 $ 275,007 

1806 275,000 

1812 265,859 

1813 267,804 

1814 270,112 

1815 262,889 

1816 265,969 

1817 250,955 $ 11,954 

1818 250,707 11,221 

1819 280,104 37,095 

1820 273,712 32,181 

1821 255,125 31,994 

1822 254,289 31,657 

1823 226,564 30,814 

1824 208,800 36,459 

1825 232,512 89,136 

1826 238,687 93,097 

1827 251,082 96,674 

1828 359,675 47,803 

1829 , 405,945 63,544 

1830 441,355 56,908 

1831 475,570 67,925 

1832 479,610 66,590 

1833 588,345 66,280 

1834 923,210 74,991 



148 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

. Real Personal 

Estate. Estate, 

^^35 2,665,753 294,056 

1836 3,270,326 256,200 

1837 2,496,693 610,676 

1838 2,493,771 302,122 

1839 2,682,546 326,897 

1840 408,819 83.950 

1841 427,820 71,700 

1842 451,670 72,950 

1843 419,720 56,400 

1844 444,433 88,700 

1845 472,161 74,850 

1846 568,970 119,750 

1847 661,560 93,600 

1848 737,635 83,600 

1849 • 801,845 89,000 

1S50 913,375 113,130 

1851 2,069,618 128,200 

1852 No Record No Record 

1853 

1854 

APPENDIX XV. 

Taxable Valuation, 
williamsburgh. 

Real Personal 

Estate. Estate. 

1840 $ 2,409,171 $ 297,121 

1841 2,452,490 224,101 

1842 2,421,996 225,410 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 49 

Real Personal 

Estate. Estate, 

1843 2,130,970 170,850 

1844 2,281,443 248,150 

1845 2,406,606 313,300 

1846 2,773,994 260,440 

1847 2,922,802 202,360 

1848 3,271,720 199,700 

1849 3,507,355 167,200 

1850 4,139,219 287,416 

1851 8,562,788 3^^,333 

1852 9,431,420 514,400 

1853 10,784,714 1,331,594 

1854 11,242,655 1,614,559 

APPENDIX XVI. 

Laws Relating to Williamsburgh. 

Village of Williamsburgh Incorporated. 

By Chapter 260 of Laws of 1827 (p. 270), passed 
April 14th, 1827, the section of the town of Bushwick, 
known by the name of Williamsburgh, and contained 
within the following bounds, viz: Beginning at the 
bay, or river, opposite the town of Brooklyn and run- 
ning thence easterly along the division line between 
the towns of Bushwick and Brooklyn to the land of 
Abraham A. Remsen, thence northerly by the same to 
a road or highway at a place called Sweed's Fly, thence 
by the same highway to the dwelling house late of 
John Vandervoort, deceased, thence in a straight line 
northerly to a small ditch or creek against the meadow 



150 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

of John Skillman, thence by said creek to Norman's 
Kill, thence by the middle or centre of Norman's Kill 
to the East River, thence by the same to the place of 
beginning, was incorporated a village by the name of 
the Village of Williamsburgh ; the said village was con- 
stituted a road district exempt from the superinten- 
dence and power of the commissioners of highways of 
the town of Bushwick, and the trustees of said village 
were invested with all the powers over said road dis- 
trict, and subject to all the duties in relation thereto, 
by law conferred or enjoined upon said commissioners; 
and said trustees were further required to cause to be 
made a survey and map of said village, exhibiting the 
streets, roads and alleys to be permanently laid out, 
etc., which map should be kept by the clerk of the cor- 
poration, subject to the inspection of the inhabitants, 
etc., in order that no person might plead ignorance of 
the plan to be adopted for opening, laying out, level- 
ing and regulating the streets of said village; and said 
trustees were authorized on application in writing to 
order and direct the pitching, regulating and paving 
the streets according to such map, to widen and alter 
all public roads, streets and highways, already laid out 
in said village, to a width not exceeding sixty feet, and 
to lay out and make such other roads and streets con- 
formable to the map of said village as they should 
think necessary or convenient for the inhabitants. 

Part of Bushwick Annexed to Williamsburgh. 

By Chapter 102 of Laws of 1835 (p. 88), passed 
April i8th, 1835, a portion of the town of Bushwick, 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I.5 I 

^' beginning at the southeast corner of the present vil- 
lage of Williamsburgh, running thence southeasterly 
along the line that divides the town of Bushwick and 
the city of Brooklyn, to a turnpike road leading from 
Brooklyn to Newtown and Flushing, at a point near, 
and southwesterly of the house of Charles De Bevoise, 
thence running along said road northeasterly to the 
Cross-Roads, then northerly along the road leading to 
Bushwick church to the Williamsburgh and Jamaica 
turnpike, thence northerly along the road, passing the 
church, and leading to Newtown bridge, about twelve 
hundred feet, to an abrupt angle in said road, turning 
to the east, then westerly about eighteen hundred feet, 
until it intersects the head of navigation of a branch of 
Bushwick creek, then westerly along said branch creek, 
according to its meanderings, to the Main creek, which 
is the present boundary of the said village of Williams- 
burgh, then southerly along the eastern boundary line 
of the said village of Williamsburgh to the place of 
beginning," was annexed to the village of Williams- 
burgh, and Nicholas Wyckoff, David Johnson, Peter 
Stagg, Robert Ainslie and John Leonard were ap- 
pointed commissioners "to designate and perma- 
nently locate all the streets and roads to be there- 
after laid out by the trustees of said village within the 
limits of the territory by said act added to said village 
bounds," and were required within four months to file 
with the clerk of the county of Kings, and with the 
clerk of said village, maps of such additional territory, 
exhibiting ail the streets and roads decided upon by 
them. 



152 the eastern district of brooklyn 

Town of Williamsburgh. 

By Chapter 51 of Laws of 1840 (p. 35), passed 
March i6th, 1840, that part of the town of Bushwick 
included within the chartered limits of the village of 
Williamsburgh was created the town of Williamsburgh, 
and divided into three assessment districts. 

Annexation of Part of Brooklyn to 
Williamsburgh. 

By Chapter 144 of Laws of 1850 (p. 242), passed 
April 4th, 1850, so much of the territory of the city of 
Brooklyn as lies east of the centre of Division Avenue, 
between the intersection of South Sixth Street, in the 
village of Williamsburgh, and Flushing avenue, in the 
city of Brooklyn, was annexed to the village of 
Williamsburgh. 

City of Williamsburgh Incorporated. 

By Chapter 91 of Laws of 1851 (p. no), passed 
April 7th, 185 1, the city of Williamsburgh was incor- 
porated, comprising the village of Williamsburgh, and 
was divided into three wards, and the common council 
thereof was authorized, under certain restrictions and 
limitations, to cause streets and avenues to be opened 
and widened, etc., and public squares and parks to be 
opened, etc. 

Consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsburgh 
AND Bushwick. 

By Chapter 577 of Laws of 1853, passed July i8th, 
1853, provision was made for consolidating the cities 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 53 

of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh and the town of 
Bushwick. 

By Chapter 384 of Laws of 1854 (p. 829), passed 
April 17th, 1854, all that part of the county of Kings, 
known as the cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh 
and the town of Bushwick, and bounded easterly by 
the town of Newtown, Queens County, south by the 
towns of New Lots, Flatbush and New Utrecht, west 
by the town of New Utrecht and the Bay of New York, 
and north by the East River, was consolidated into one 
municipal corporation called the city of Brooklyn, and 
divided into eighteen wards, and into the Eastern and 
Western Districts. 

Distinction of Eastern and Western Districts 

Abolished. 

By Chapter 496 of Laws of 1855 (p. 905), passed 
April 14th, 1855, all local distinctions recognized by 
law, in relation to the Eastern and Western Districts, 
of the city of Brooklyn, were abolished, except so far 
as relates to the fire department thereof. 



APPENDIX XVII. 

The Solid Men of Williamsburgh. 

In 1847 a list in pamphlet form was published, con- 
taining the names of citizens of Brooklyn and Will- 
iamsburgh, whose possessions in real and personal 
estate amounted to ten thousand dollars and upwards. 



154 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

We here give the names of the "Solid Men of Will- 
iamsburgh," taken from the list: 

Ainslie, James f 15,000 

Baker, Mills P 20,000 

Brown, Wm. H. E . . . 20,000 

Berry, Richard B 20,000 

Burdett, Joshua A 15,000 

Burdon, Jos. W 15,000 

Cook, John 20,000 

Coffin, Timothy 10,000 

Darlington, Thomas 10,000 

Cummings, Abijah P 35,000 

Duncan, Fleming 25,000 

Farley, Edward 20,000 

Graves, Downing G 25,000 

Lake, Richard 30,000 

JLake, Thomas 30,000 

Lake, William 40,000 

Laytin, William 30,000 

Leaycraft, Richard 200,000 

Leaycraft, William 10,000 

Minturn, E. & H 150,000 

Moore, Thomas C 15,000 

Morrell, Francis V" 25,000 

M'Briar, John 15,000 

Meserole, David M ^ 20,000 

Miles, W. B 25,000 

Miller, John 20,000 

Odell, Jonathan 25,000 

Polley, Grahams 40,000 

Richardson, Lemuel 30,000 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 155" 

Ricard, George 25,000 

Sargeant, Thomas 25,000 

Skillman, John 35,000 

Sparkman, James D , 300,000 

Ten Eyck, Richard 25,000 

Thursby, John 25,000 

Ulford, Levi W 40,000 

Van Sant, T. J 25,000 

Wall, William 25,000 

Waterbury, J 175,000 

Waterbury, N 200,000 

Waterbury, L 40, 000 

Van Dorn, Rev. W. H 40,000 

Warner, T 30, 000 

Withington, Elijah . , . , 30,000 

APPENDIX XVIII. 

Inscriptions on tombstones in the ancient Bushwick 
graveyard, still visible in 1861, were copied by Dr. 
Stiles: 

Died. Age. 

Andries Stockholm i773 7^ years 

Isaac Lott 1771 66 

Capt. Lawrence Coe 1780 50 

Abraham Bogert 1792 69 

Maria Bourem 1807 69 

Sarah Ann Skillman 1845 26 

Andrew Van Horn 1828 78 

Baffir Van Horn (his wife) 1837 91 

Francis Titus 1802 74 



156 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Died. Age. 

Francis Williams 1797 i year 

Francis Titus 1799 24 years 

David Miller 1817 61 " 

Isaac Debevoise 1831 74 " 

1749— D. B. M. D. B. 
1758— H. B. B. 

APPENDIX XIX. 

Inscriptions on tombstones in the Schenck family 
burying ground, on the Wyckoff farm, were copied by 

Dr. Stiles in i860: 

Died, Age. 

Johannes Schenck 1748 92 years 

Cornells Schenck 1740 

Nellie Schenck 1763 17 " 

Maria Magdalena Schenck. : 1779 17 " 

Elsie Schenck 1782 25 " 

Abraham Schenck 16 days 

Maria Schenck 1740 50 years 

Maria Magdalena Schenck 1729 70 " 

Maria Schenck 1776 19 " 

Maria Magdelena McPhern 1782 i year 

Teunis Schenck 1800 S^ years 

Catherine Schenck i793 65 *' 

Peter T. Schenck 1808 ^6 " 

Elizabeth O'Neale 

John O'Neale 1816 64 " 

Catherine Dandy 1828 32 " 

Catherine Schenck 1858 18 " 

Peter P. Schenck 1832 39 " 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 157 

APPENDIX XX. 

Tombstones in the Bushwick churchyard, copied in 

1880 by Geo. Sparrow, A. M. This list is taken from 

the Kings County Genealogical Club Collections, 

which contain the inscriptions in full. Some of the 

tombstones were removed from the ancient graveyard 

to this place: 

Died. Age. 

Anderies Stockholm i773 7^ years 

Elizabeth Cornel 1780 55 *' 

Capt. Lawrence Coe 1780 50 

William Morrell 1831 30 " 

Isaac De Bevoise 1831 74 

Maria Jane De Bevoise 1831 i mth. 

Magdalena De Bevoise 1 83 1 i year 

Adrianna De Bevoise 1833 27 years 

Patrick Weir i799 26 " 

Ann Anderson 22 

Frederick Hueth 1802 56 " 

M. Elmd 

B. B., D. B. M.— 1756. 

John A. Meserole 1833 82 " 

Gertrude Meserole 1801 35 " 

John V. Robbins 1831 23 " 

Jeremiah Meserole 1827 34 

Mercy Baseley 1833 31 

Ellen Maria Baseley 1836 

David Miller 1823 38 *' 

David Miller 1815 61 " 

Catherine Miller i794 

John Meserole. 1817 i year 



158 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Died. Age. 

Harmpie Van Cotts 1814 52 " 

Sarah Van Cott 1828 32 " 

David Van Cott 1824 . 70 " 

Sarah Schenck 1838 61 " 

Sarah Elizabeth Schenck 1839 6 mths. 

John Schenck 1842 2 mths. 

Abraham Vandervoort ^849 64 years 

Stephen Schenck 1850 45 *' 

Anna Swezey 184. — 

H. Ann 

1842 — 

Four stones, inscription side down, 

s Bogert 1819 

Hannah Cantrell 1843 43 

Jeremiah Boerum 181 7 27 

Jacob Boerum 1852 82 

Adrienna Boerum 1835 81 

Large plot, enclosed, with railing, no stones. 

Jacob Van Cotts 1845 81 

David Van Cotts 1845 46 

John Schenck 1844 77 

Gertrude Schenck 1 849 53 

William Degraw 1826 ^;^ 

Samuel Holcomb Meeker 1829 2 

APPENDIX XXI. 

Obsolete Street Names in the Eastern District. 

Since the question of altering the names of many 
streets in this borough is to be taken up shortly, it may 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 59 

be of interest to review the change of street names 
that has taken place in the past in the Eastern District. 

When Williamsburgh, Bushwick and Greenpoint 
were distinct settlements, each section had a series of 
numerical streets by itself, not considering those 
streets in Williamsburgh that are known as South 
First, etc., and North First, etc. The Williamsburgh 
series is well remembered by many of the present day 
residents of the district, as the change to "named 
streets " was made at a comparatively recent date; but 
the numbered streets of Bushwick and Greenpoint 
were altered at the time of the consolidation with 
Brooklyn in 1855. 

From the attached list of street names altered for 
the greater part since that time, it will be noticed that 
these changes have been greater than is generally 
believed. The list may not be complete, nor free from 
error, but the compiler believes that it will give a fair 
idea how far-reaching these changes have been. 

A Street is now Ash Street. 

Adams Street, Bowronville, is now Melrose Street. 

Adams Street, Greenpoint, from Front Street to 
Newtown Creek, between Jefferson and Jackson Sts. 

Agate Street, Bushwick, is now Florence Place^ 
formerly Jefferson Street. 

Ann Street, Bowronville, is now Belvidere Street. 

Ann Street, Greenpoint, from Commercial Street 
to Newtown Creek. 

Ann Street, North Brooklyn, is now Cross Street. 

B Street is now Box Street. 

Banzett Street is now Debevoise Avenue. 



l6o THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Bay Street is now part of West Street. 

Bedford Green was bounded by Franklin Avenue, 
Atlantic Avenue, Bedford Avenue and Fulton Avenue. 

Bridge Street, later Bridge Avenue, is now Paidge 
Avenue. 

Broadway was the name given to Division Avenue 
in its entire length before consolidation and in general 
use for some years. 

Browne Street is now North First Street. 

Brooklyn and Newtown Turnpike Road was re- 
placed by Flushing Avenue. 

Burr Place, from i8 Noll Street, is now closed. 

Bushwick Avenue included Old Woodpoint Road 
from North Second Street to Withers Street in the '50's. 

Bushwick Avenue, part of it became Old Bush- 
wick Avenue, now Bushwick Place. 

Bushwick Bridge, Franklin Street, Greenpoint. 

Bushwick Boulevard was the name proposed for 
the road taking in Bushwick Avenue and other Streets. 

Bushwick Road, also known as Old Bushwick 
Road. (See Old Bushwick Road.) 

Bushwick Street — lower part of present Metropoli- 
tan Avenue, near the shore; was later called Woodhull 
Street, then North Second Street. 

C Street is now Clay Street. 

Calvary Road, or 

Calyer Road is now part of Calyer Street. 

Center Street is now part of Melrose Street. 

Charles Place, Bowronville, was near Myrtle Street. 

Charles Place, later Yates Place, now Sumner Place. 

Charles Street, later First Street, now Kent Avenue. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN l6l 

Chestnut Street is now part of DeKalb Avenue. 

Clay Street, from Front Street to Newtown Creek. 

Clifford Street is now Clifford Place. 

Clinton Avenue or Street. 

Clove Road, from Fulton Avenue, between Bedford 
Avenue and Nostrand Avenue, to Flatbush. 

Colonade Row was on east side of Smith Street, 
between Richardson and Herbert Streets. 

Conselyea Street, Bowronville, is now Stanhope 
Street. 

Cripplebush and Mespat Road replaced by Flush- 
ing Avenue. 

Cross-Roads — Cripplebush and Mespat Road and 
^ushwick Road. 

Cypress Hills Macadamized Road, formerly Cypress 
Hills Plank Road. 

Cypress Hills Plank Road is now part of Johnson 
Avenue and Cypress Avenue. 

D Street is now Dupont Street. 

DeKalb Place, Bowronville, is now part of DeKalb 
Avenue. 

Dick Street, from Commercial Street to Newtown 
Creek, between Ann and Eve Streets. 

Division Avenue is now, for the most part, covered 
by Broadway. 

Division Street is now Division Place. 

Driggs Street, formerly Fifth Street, Williams- 
burgh, is now part of Driggs Avenue. 

Dunham Street was lower part of Grand Street. 

Duryea's Lane ran from Division Avenue to Bush- 
wick Road, between Eldert and Covert Streets. 



1 62 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Duryea Street is now Weirfield Street. 

E Street is now Eagle Street. 

Eighth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Marcy 
Avenue. 

Eighth Street, Greenpoint, is now Jewel Street. 

Eleventh Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of 
Hooper Street. 

Elizabeth Street, later Fairfax Street, now part of 
Chauncey Street. 

Elm Street is now part of Hart Street. 

Evergreen Avenue was originally the part of Bush- 
wick Avenue above Madison Street. 

Eve Street, from (old) Union Avenue to Newtown 
Creek, between Box and Commercial Streets. 

F Street is now Freeman Street. 

Fairfax Street, formerly Elizabeth Street, now part 
of Chauncey Street. 

Ferry Street was near Washington Street. 

Fifth Street, Williamsburgh, later Driggs Street, 
is now part of Driggs Avenue. 

Fifth Street, Greenpoint, is now part of Oakland 
Street. 

Fifth Street, Bushwick, later Van Cott, is now part 
of Driggs Avenue. 

Fillmore Street was near Smith Street. 

First Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Kent 
Avenue. 

First Street, Greenpoint, is now part of Lorimer 
Street. 

•First Street, Bushwick, is now part of Calyer Street. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 63 

Fourth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Bed- 
ford Avenue. 

Fourth Street, Greenpoint, is now part of Eckford 
Street. 

Fourth Street, Bushwick, later Nassau Street, now 
Nassau Avenue. 

Franklin Block, Bushwick, was on Herbert Street. 

Franklin Block, Greenpoint, was on Franklin 
Street, between Milton Street and Greenpoint Avenue. 

Franklin Place was on south side of Powers Street, 
between Graham Avenue and Ewen Street. 

Fresh Pond Lane was a narrow lane leading from 
the southerly end of New Bushwick Lane to the Fresh 
Ponds of Newtown, about present Moffatt Street. 

Front Street, laid out on map under water. 

Fulton Avenue is now part of Fulton Street. 

Furman Street is now Furman Avenue. 

G Street is now Green Street. 

Greene Street is now part of Greene Avenue. 

Guilford Street is now part of Olive Street. 

Greenpoint Avenue, formerly L Street, then Green- 
point Avenue, then National Avenue, is now Green- 
point Avenue again. 

Gwinnett Street is now part of Lorimer Street. 

H Street is now Huron Street. 

Hamburg Street, formerly Johnson Avenue, is now 
Hamburg Avenue. 

Harrison Street is now Harrison Place. 

Henry Street is now North Henry Street. 

Hickory Street is now Lexington Avenue. 

Homer Street, later Third Street, now Berry Street. 



164 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Hudson Avenue is now Kingston Avenue. 

Hull Street, Bovvronville, is now De Sales Place. 

I Street is now India Street. 

Irving Place was on the east side of Third Street, 
between South Eighth and South Ninth Streets. 

Ivy Street is now part of Madison Street. 

J Street is now Java Street. 

Jackson Street, from Front Street to Newtown 
Creek, is now Charlick vStreet. 

Jacob Street is now part of Putnam Avenue. 

Jay Street, near Cross-Roads. 

Jamaica Turnpike is now Metropolitan Avenue. 

Jane Street is now covered by Greenpoint Park. 

Jefferson Place was on east side of Seventh Street, 
between South Fifth and South Sixth Streets. 

Jefferson Street, Brooklyn, is now part of Jefferson 
Avenue. 

Jefferson Street, Bushwick, later Spruce Street, 
then Agate Street, is now Florence Place. 

Jefferson Street, Greenpoint, is now Vail Street. 

John Street, later Vigelius Street, is now part of 
Jefferson Avenue. 

Johnson Avenue, later Hamburg Street, is now 
Hamburg Avenue. 

Johnson Square was bounded by Lee Avenue, 
Lynch vStreet, Bedford Avenue, Flushing Avenue and 
Gwinnett Street. 

Johnson Street is now Johnson Avenue. 

K Street is now Kent Street. 

Kijkuit Lane connected Bushwick Church with 
the Kijkuit. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 65 

Kosciusko Place, or Avenue, is now part of Kos- 
ciusko Street. 

L Street is now Greenpoint Avenue, and for a time 
was known as National Avenue. 

Lafayette Place was on west side of South Fourth 
Street, between Sixth and Seventh Streets. 

Lane to Norman's Kill branched off the Woodpoint 
Road, covered by part of Driggs Avenue. 

Lawton Street is now Lawton and Cedar Streets. 

Lefferts Park, bounded (on the map) by Tompkins, 
Throop and Gates Avenues and Quincy Street. 

Leopold Place, formerly Covert Avenue, now Purdy 
Place. 

Lewis Place was on north side of Second Street, 
between South Tenth and South Eleventh Streets. 

Liberty Street, near D and F Streets. 

Linden Place was on south side of Sandford Street, 
between Smith and Ewen Streets. 

Linden Avenue is now Sharon Avenue. 

Linden Street, Bushwick, is now part of Morgan 
Avenue. 

Long Row was on Smith Street. 

M Street is now Milton Street. 

Madison Place was on east side of Oak Street, be- 
tween Franklin and Washington Streets. 

Madison Street is now Troutman Street. 

Magnolia Street is now part of Gates Avenue. 

Margareta Street is now part of Halsey Street. 

Marshall Street is now Siegel Street. 

Marshfield Row was on Division Avenue. 

Masters' Bridge now Metropolitan Avenue Bridge. 



1 66 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Maxwell Street, later Second Street, Williams- 
burgh, now Wythe Avenue. 

McWay Place was on south side of Fifth Street, be- 
tween North Eighth and North Ninth Streets. 

Meserole Street, Greenpoint, is now Meserole 
Avenue. 

Metropolitan Avenue was originally from Bush- 
wick Avenue to Newtown Creek. 

Mill Lane ran from Woodpoint Road to Luqueer's 
Mill. 

Monroe Place was on South Fifth Street, between 
Sixth and Seventh Streets. 

Monroe Street, Cross Roads, is now Montieth Street. 

Morrell Street ran from Debevoise Street to Rem- 
sen Street. 

Myrtle Avenue and Jamaica Plank Road is now 
part of Myrtle Avenue. 

Myrtle Street is now part of Willoughby Avenue. 

N Street is now Noble Street. 

Nassau Street, formerly Fourth Street, Bushwick, 
is now Nassau Avenue. 

National Avenue, formerly L Street, then Green- 
point Avenue, is now Greenpoint Avenue again. 

New Bushwick Lane ran from Bushwick village 
into the New Lotts of Bushwick. 

New Bushwick Road was laid out in 1704 to con- 
nect the old Bushwick Road with the Kings Highway 
to Jamaica. 

Newtown Bridge on (old) Union Avenue, same as 
present Vernon Avenue steel bridge. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 67 

Newtown Road or Turnpike, replaced by Flushing 
Avenue. 

Newtown Road or Turnpike, or North Road, is 
now Meeker Avenue. . 

Ninth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Rodney 
Street. 

Ninth Street, Greenpoint, is now Moultrie Street. 

Norman Street, formerly Third Street, Bushwick, 
then Union Street, now Norman Avenue. 

North Road is now Meeker Avenue. 

North Street is now Hope Street. 

North Second Street, originally Bushwick Street, 
later Woodhull Street, ran from East River to Bush- 
wick Avenue, is now part of Metropolitan Avenue. 

O Street is now Oak Street. 

Old Bushwick Avenue is now Bushwick Place. 

Old Bushwick Road led from Bushwick Green 
along present Bushwick Avenue, Bushwick Place, 
Bushwick Avenue, Madison Streeet, Evergreen Ave- 
nue, Central Avenue to the Green Hills. 

Old Mill Road ran from Bushwick Church to the 
Woodpoint Road in present Debevoise Avenue, be- 
tween Bennett and Parker Streets. 

Old Road, remnant of Woodpoint Road, is now 
Old Woodpoint Road. 

Orchard Street is now part of Manhattan Avenue. 

P Street is now part of Calyer Street. 

Paca Avenue is now Rockaway Avenue. 

Park Place is now Park Street. 

Peck Slip was a name given to foot of Broadway 
around ferry to Peck Slip, New York City. 



1 68 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Pell Street is now Bell Street. 

Filling's Lane ran from Division Avenue to Bush- 
wick Road. 

Prospect Street is now Noll Street. 

Q Street is now Quay Street. 

Railroad Avenue is replaced by Atlantic Avenue- 
Reed Avenue is now Reid Avenue. 

Reed Road connected Hunterfly and Cripplebusb 
Roads. 

Reid Square bounded (on the map) by Stuyvesant 
Avenue, McDonough Street, Reed Avenue, Halsey 
Street. 

Remsen Street is now Maujer Street. 

River Street is now Wallabout Street. 

Rockaway Path, or Pass, led from the southerly 
end of New Bushwick Lane across the Green Hills to 
Kings Highway to Jamaica. 

Sandford Street is now Bayard Street. 

Schols Street is now Scholes Street. 

Schuyler Street replaced by Atlantic Avenue. 

Second Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of 
Wythe Avenue. 

Second Street, Bushwick, is now part of Meserole 
Avenue. 

Second Street, Greenpoint, later Orchard Street,, 
is now part of Manhattan Avenue. 

Seventh Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of 
Havemeyer Street. 

Seventh Street, Greenpoint, is now Diamond Street. 

Sixth Street, Williamsburgh, is now Roebling 
Street. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 69 

Sixth Street, Greenpoint, is now Newell Street. 

Skillman Street is now Skillman Avenue. 

Smith Avenue, formerly Wyckoff Street, is now 
part of Humboldt Street. 

Smith Street is now part of Humboldt Street. 

South Seventh Street is now part of Broadway. 

South Sixth Street, above Bedford Avenue, is now 
part of Broadway. 

Spring Terrace was on Meeker Avenue. 

Spruce Street — see Agate Street. 

Swaaten Fly was the marshy ground on the junc- 
tion of North Second and Eighth Streets. 

Tenth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Keap 
Street. 

Thames Street from Varick Avenue to Newtown 
Creek is now Thomas Street. 

Third Street, Williamsburgh, is now Berry Street. 

Third Street, Greenpoint, is now part of Leonard 
Street. 

Third Street, Bushwick, later Union Street, then 
Norman Street, is now Norman Avenue. 

Townsend Row was near Ann Street (present Cross 
Street). 

Twelfth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of 
Hewes Street. 

Union Avenue, Greenpoint, later Union Place, is 
now part of Manhattan Avenue. 

Union Place, formerly Union Avenue, Greenpoint, 
is now part of Manhattan Avenue. 

Union Street, formerly Third Street, Bushwick, then 
Norman Street, is now Norman Avenue. 



lyo THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Van Cott Street, or Avenue, ran from Leonard 
Street to Meeker Avenue, is now part of Driggs 
Avenue. 

Vanderveer Street, or Avenue, is now part of East- 
■ern Parkway extension. 

Van Pelt Avenue is now Engert Avenue. 

Van Ranst Street, from river shore to Walter Street, 
between Grand and North First Streets. 

Van Voorhies Street is now part of Decatur Street. 

Vigelius Street, formerly John Street, is now part 
of Jefferson Avenue. 

Wall Street is now Arion Place. 

Walloon Street is now Wallock Street. 

Walter Street, later Water Street, now River 
Street. 

Washington Place was on east side of South Sixth 
Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets. 

Washington Street, Bowronville, is now Bremen 
Street. 

Washington Street, Greenpoint, is now West 
Street. 

Washington Street, Bushwick Green, is now Haus- 
man Street. 

Washington Street, Bushwick Cross Roads, from 
Remsen Street to Grand Street, between Jefferson and 
Waterbury Streets, later Lafayette Street, is now La 
Grange Street. 

Washington Street, Williamsburgh, later Dunham 
Street, now lower part of Grand Street. 

Water Street ran from Wallabout Bridge to Will- 
iamsburg ferry, replaced by Kent Avenue, part ran 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 171 

later from South First Street to North Third Street; 
remnant left is present River Street. 

Wesley Place was on east side of South Second 
Street, between Fifth and Sixth Streets. 

Williamsburgh and Cypress Hills Plank Road is 
now part of Johnson Avenue and Cypress Avenue. 

Williamsburgh Road. A part of this road was in- 
corporated in Kent Avenue and another part became 
Hospital Lane. 

William Street, Bushwick, is now Monitor Street. 

William Street, Bowronville, is now Aberdeen 
Street. 

Williams Row was on (old) Madison Street, on 
present Troutman Street. 

Witherspoon Street is now Vernon Avenue. 

Woodhull Street, former Bushwick Street, later 
North Second Street, is now part of Metropolitan 
Avenue. 

Woodpoint Road, or Old Road, ran from Bush- 
wick village to Newtown Creek, near Franklin and 
Green Streets. A branch led to Norman's Kill. 

Wyckoff Street, Bushwick Green, later Smith Ave- 
nue, is now part of Humboldt Street. 

Wyckoff Street, Bushwick Cross-Roads, is now 
Ten Eyck Street. 

Yates Avenue is now Sumner Avenue. 

Yates Place, formerly Charles Place, is now Sum- 
ner Place. 

Franklin Street, Bushwick Green, near Graham 
Avenue. 



172 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Peck Slip Road, in Wallabout section, leading to 
ferry. 

Jamaica Road, or Turnpike, Brooklyn, later Ful- 
ton Avenue, now part of Fulton Street. 

Carsville, Malboneville and Weeksville, neighbor- 
hoods in Bedford. 

APPENDIX XXII. 

Origin of Some of the Street Names. 

The origin of some of the street names is given by 
Dr. Stiles as follows: 

Bushvvick Street, later Woodhull Street, then North 
Second Street, and at the present day Metropolitan 
Avenue. 

The lower, and then narrow part of Grand Street, 
before widening, was Dunham Street. 

In the first village of Williamsburgh, Grand Street 
was the centre, and on one side were South First 
to South Eleventh Streets, and on the other side North 
First to North Thirteenth Streets, and parallel with the 
river First to Twelfth Streets, and a short street close 
to the river called River Street. 

Lorimer Street and Graham Avenue were named 
after John and James Lorimer Graham, two land job- 
bers of 1836. 

Ewen Street, now part of Manhattan Avenue, was 
named after Daniel Ewen, a city surveyor, residing in 
New York City, who surveyed both the new and the 
old village. 

Bushwick Avenue was the boundary line between 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 73 

the enlarged village of Williamsburgh and Bushvvick. 

Powers Street was named from William P. Powers, 
a clerk of John Lorimer Graham, who was made nomi- 
nal proprietor of nine hundred and thirty-nine lots for 
the convenience of the sale, and also of other parcels 
of land. 

Ainslie Street, after Judge Ainslie. 

Devoe Street, after the Devoes in Bushwick village. 

Conselyea Street ran through the farms of Andrew 
Conselyea and his brother. 

Skillman Avenue, after John Skillman Sr. 

Jackson Street, probably after Daniel Jackson, who 
had some landed interests in Williamsburgh. 

Withers Street, after Reuben Withers, once proprie- 
tor of the Houston Street ferry. 

Frost Street, after Edmund Frost, who was interested 
in a tract of land in the Fourteenth Ward. 

Richardson Street, after Lemuel Richardson, one 
of the pioneers in building up Williamsburgh. 

Maujer Street, after Daniel Maujer. It was formerly 
Remsen Street, named from Abraham A. Remsen, who 
owned land at its junction with Union Avenue. 

Scholes Street, after James Scholes. 

Meserole Avenue, from Abraham M. Meserole, 
through whose farm it ran. 

Boerum Street, after Jacob Boerum, who had a farm 
of fifty-eight acres in the Sixteenth Ward. 

McKibben Street, after John S. McKibben, who 
caused a map of a part of the Jacob Boreum farm, as 
the land of McKibben & Nichols, to be made. 



174 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Siegel Street, formerly Marshall Street, in honor of 
General Siegel, of the civil war. 

Moore Street was named for Thomas C. Moore, a 
manufacturer of wire netting-, who owned lands in that 
neighborhood. 

Varet Street, after Lewis F. Varette, a land specula- 
tor in this neighborhood. 

Cook Street, probably from an old resident near 
the Cross-Roads. 

Debevoise Avenue, covering a part of the old 
Brooklyn and Newtown Turnpike, from Chas. Debe- 
voise, who lived on Flushing Avenue. 

Himrod Street was named for the Rev. J. S. Him- 
rod, the first pastor of the South Bushwick Reformed 
Dutch Church. 

Weirfield Street was named for Thomas Weir Field, 
a surveyor, and a man prominent in public affairs, who 
resided here. 

APPENDIX XXIII. 

Obsolete Street Names and Origin of Street 
Names in the Town of New Lots. 

Adams Street is now Ashford Street. 

Adams Avenue is now McKinley Avenue. 

Anstice Street is now Amboy Street. 

Baltic Road (or Avenue) is now Glenmore Avenue. 

Baltic Street is now Bristol Street. ^ 

Bay Avenue is now Belmont Avenue. 

Bennett Avenue is now Berriman Street. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 75 

Broadway, later Eastern Parkway, is now Pitkin 
Avenue. 

Butler Avenue is now Bradford Street. 

Center Street is now Chester Street. 

Cypress Avenue is now Crescent Street. 

Division Avenue is now Arlington Avenue, after 
the Arlington Military Cemetery. 

Duryea Avenue is now Dumont Avenue. 

Eastern Parkway, formerly Broadway, is now Pit- 
kin Avenue. 

Eldert Avenue is now Essex Street. 

Eldert's Lane, later Enfield Street, is Eldert's Lane 
again. 

Enfield Street, corrupted from Endfield Street, it 
being the end of the fields of the town, is now Eldert's 
Lane again. 

Flatlands Avenue is now Fairfield Avenue. 

Furman Place is now Fanchon Place. 

Grove Street is now Glen Street. 

Henry Avenue is now Hinsdale Avenue. 

Howard Place is now Gillen Place. 

Ivy Street is now Hill Street. 

Jefferson Street is now Cleveland Street, named for 
Grover Cleveland. 

Jamaica Plank Road, later Jamaica Turnpike, is 
now Jamaica Avenue. 

John Street is now Jerome Street. 

Johnson Avenue is now Junius Street. 

Liberty Avenue, named for the fact that it was a 
free road for the farmers while Jamaica Plank Road 
was a toll road. 



176 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

Linnineton Avenue is now Livonia Avenue. 

Locust Street is now Logan Avenue, named for 
General Logan. 

Madison Street is now Elton Street. 

Monroe Street is now Linwood Street. 

Morse Avenue is now Milford Street. 

Myrtle Street is now Magenta Street. 

Nassau Street is now Norwood Avenue. 

New Lots Road is now New Lots Avenue. 

Orient Avenue is now Powell Street, named for 
Dr. Powell. 

Rapelye Avenue is now Riverdale Avenue. 

Rapelye Street is now Richmond Street. 

Smith Street is now Hendrix Street. 

Stotthoff Avenue is now Stanley Avenue. 

Union Avenue is now Sutter Avenue. 

Union Place is now Havens Place. 

Van Brunt Avenue is now Vienna Avenue. 

Vanderveer Avenue is now Newport Street. 

Vanderveer Street is now Grafton Street. 

Van Wicklen Avenue is now Vandalia Avenue. 

Vesta Avenue is now Van- Sinderen Avenue. 

Wasliington Place is now Jardine Place. 

Washington Street is now Warwick Street. 

Wyckoff Avenue is now Wyona Street. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 77 

APPENDIX XXIV. 

The Ferries. 

As early as 1797 a rowboat service was in existence 
between the Bushwick shore and New York City, with 
landings at the Fountain Inn on the Long Island side 
and James Hazard's place at Corlear's Hook. A few 
years later Richard M. Woodhull, of New York City, 
purchased fifteen acres of the farm of Charles Titus 
and established a ferry, running from present Metro- 
politan Avenue to Rivington Street, New York. In 
1804 Thomas Morrell, of Newtown, bought from 
Folkert Titus the homestead farm of the Titus estate, 
comprising twenty-eight acres, and opened Grand 
Street through the centre of the farm to Roebling 
Street. In 1812 he started a ferry from Morrell's 
Point, at the foot of the new street, running to Grand 
Street, New York. At the landing he kept a horn for 
the convenience of passengers, to call him from his 
farmwork. Morrell and Hazard worked in harmony, 
but the competition between Morrell and Woodhull 
was keen. Morrell improved boats and service, and 
after considerable loss on both sides, Woodhull's ferry 
was united with Morrell's, and with it went the name 
Williamsburgh Ferry, and the Fountain Inn became 
the headquarters of the political influence of the town 
of Bushwick. In 181 7 row and sailboats were ex- 
changed for horseboats, stables were erected and 
exchanges of horses were kept in readiness. In 1827 
one of the boats was altered into a steam power-boat 
and named "Eclipse." 



I 78 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

In 1824 the Williamsburgh Ferry was incorporated. 
In 1836 the Peck Slip Ferry was established, running 
from South Seventh Street to Peck Slip, New York- 
The Houston Street Ferry followed in 1840, and the 
Division Avenue Ferry in 1851, plying between South 
Seventh Street and Grand Street, New York. In 1853 
the ferry from Greenpoint Avenue to Tenth Street, 
New York, was opened; and in 1857 the landing of the 
Calvary Cemetery Ferry, controlled by St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, and running to Twenty-third Street, New 
York, was transferred to Greenpoint Avenue. In 1857 
the South Tenth Street Ferry was opened, running 
between South Tenth Street and James Slip, New York. 
In i860 the Brooklyn Ferry Company began to run a 
boat from South Ninth Street to Roosevelt Street, 
New York. In 1885 a new line from Broadway to 
Twenty-third Street, New York, was opened; and in 
later years another line to Forty-second Street. In 
December, 1908, all the ferries running from Broad- 
way and the Grand Street line to Grand Street, New 
York, were discontinued. On March i6th, 1911, the 
Brooklyn & Manhattan Ferry Company reopened a 
line from Broadway to Roosevelt Street, New York, 
and two months later another line from Broadway to 
Twenty-third Street. 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 79 

APPENDIX XXV. 

Notes On the Several Settlements. 

In 1654 the inhabitants of Middelburgh and Mespat 
asked for an allotment of their hay land. Commis- 
sioners were appointed to inspect the land and were 
directed to allot if possible eight morgen of meadow 
land to every twenty-five morgen of arable land. On 
February 29th, 1656, the settlers at Mespat requested 
that Claes Van Elslant, who was expected at the place 
to survey some land, be directed to survey at the same 
time the island, upon which the village of New Arn- 
heim was to be built, and to determine its size. They 
also asked that the Governor and Council fix the width 
of the main road and the size of each building lot, as 
they themselves did not understand the laying out of 
lots and would locate the houses arbitrarily, which 
would give a slovenly appearance. De Sille, the 
patentee of the island, was advised to lay out the 
street and lots in a manner which he considered most 
advantageous for the settlement. On April 4th, 1656, 
inhabitants of Middelburgh complained that the peo- 
ple of New Arnheim were mowing upon and using the 
meadows granted to the village of Middelburgh, as if 
they belonged to them, and asked again that the 
meadows be divided between the villages of Middel- 
burgh and Arnheim. In 1662 the meadows lying on 
Seller's Neck, on Jamaica Bay, between the third and 
fourth Kils, were divided as follows: One hundred 
morgen to the village of Breukelen; one hundrd mor- 



l8o THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

gen to the village of Middelburgh; eighty morgen to 
the bouvveries of Mespat. 

Thus it seems that the disputes which arose between 
the early settlers, as to boundary lines, were on account 
of meadow land. When the colony came under Eng- 
lish control, town patents were issued, and the fees 
from these patents were a considerable source of 
income to the governor. Richard Nicolls granted the 
first town patents and also many patents to individual 
settlers, and specially in the beginning gave unim- 
proved land to anyone who was willing to settle there- 
on, without any previous survey or without any certain 
boundaries, stating that the patent contained one hun- 
dred, two hundred or more acres, adjoining such other 
man's land, or to a certain hill or river. After the 
arrival of Lord Cornbury in 1702 it became evident 
that this new governor was inclined to regard the com- 
mon lands of the several towns as property of the gov- 
ernment. To prevent the granting of these lands to 
friends of the governor, the towns divided the com- 
mon lands among the freeholders in parcels corres- 
ponding in size to their holdings of land. Cornbury 
acted in this manner in regard to the land in dispute 
between Bushwick and Newtown; and not until 1769 
this dispute was settled, when it was arranged that the 
line was to run from the mouth of Mispat Kil, along 
the creek to the west side of Smith's Island, to, and 
along a branch leading out of the creek to the pond, or 
hole of water, near the head of Schenck's mill pond, 
easterly to Arbitration Rock (which stood in a meadow 
lying opposite the house of Frederick Van Nanda, 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



I8l 



later Of Moses Begel, and still later of Ann Onder- 
donck) a little west of Joseph Woodward's house 
(later of James Schoonmaker), from said rock running 
south to Arbitration Heap (a heap of stones with a 
stake in the centre) and in the same direct line to the 
hills, or mountains, until it meets the line of Flatbush 
(iNevv Lots). 

In the Walboght region Joris Rapelie requested on 
August 36th, r66o, that he might be allowed to leave 
his house standing upon his land and not be com- 
pelled to move it, as ordered by " placard against sep- 
arate farms," published February i.th ^ 
"On February loth, 1661, the settlers were ^varned 
for the last time" that they must remove from their sep- 
arate bouweries before the ,5th of March next on the 
penalty as prescribed by law. On February 24th 1661 
the majority asked that they might be excused from 
the order sent to them on the 10th instant, and be 
allowed to erect for their defense a block house on the 
hook of Jons Rapalie's land. 

On March- zst, 1661, a petition was made bv eight 
persons to form a village between the land of Tonis 
Gysbertsen Bogaert and the land of Jacob Kip on the 
bank of the East River, " where we can see the Man! 
hattans or Fort New Amsterdam." Consent having 
been given a few began to build houses at the place 
but the majority did not. ^ ' 

On March 3d, 1661, the majority declared that the 
order was given upon request of Kip and his followers 
o form a village and block-house at the end of Kip^; 
land on the hill, but it had been found that the land 



1 82 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

was too Stony and drinking water was scarce there- 
abouts; and asked to be allowed to erect a block-house 
on the hook of Joris Rapalie, where they might retreat 
in time of need. The order of February loth was 
reaffirmed. 

At Bedford the farmers requested on May 26th, 
1663, as follows: " Having obtained lately a grant of 
a piece of land in the rear of the Walboght, near Mar- 
cus' (Merck's) plantation, and cleared the land, and 
some having already planted and sown, and others 
are beginning to plant, and the farmers living far 
from their property, ask to be allowed to form a 
hamlet there to protect their property." October ist, 
1666, the inhabitants of Bedford asked that they might 
have a cart path over Captain Betts' ground, it being 
so troublesome for them to cart their hay *and carry it 
through the deep ground. January 4th, 1668, Thomas 
Lamberts, of Bedford, received a license for keeping 
an ordinary for the accommodation of strangers, travel- 
ers and other persons, passing that way, with diet, 
lodging and horsemeat, to sell beer, wine and other 
liquors for their relief; and no one else in the 
village of Bedford to have the privilege, for one year 
and no longer. 

Wallabout Village came into existence in 1830. It 
included the old Wallabout and Cripplebush settle- 
ments, and was bounded by the Wallabout and New- 
town Roads, or Flushing Avenue, on the north; Jamaica 
Turnpike Road, or Fulton Street, on the south; 
Clinton Avenue on the west, and Division Avenue, or 
Broadway, on the east. The Cripplebush Road cut 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 83 

through the farm lands along the line of present Nost- 
rand and Bedford Avenues to the Jamaica Turnpike, 
passing the old J. J. Rappalyea stone house. In 1832 
streets began to be laid out. A century ago Myrtle 
Street extended a short distance from the main road 
of the Brooklyn settlement. In 1835 ^^is street was 
continued as Myrtle Avenue, graded and paved to the 
Cripplebush Road, affording a new route between 
Wallabout Village and Brooklyn. About 1852 Myrtle 
Avenue was extended to Broadway, and two years 
later the Brooklyn City Railroad, having bought out 
the Myrtle Avenue stage line, ran horse cars to the 
end of the road. In 1842 there were between Broad- 
way and Fort Greene and Myrtle Avenue and the 
Jamaica Turnpike only thirty houses. A single house 
was standing on the south side of Myrtle Avenue, on 
the corner of Classon Avenue. There were 1,679 P^^" 
sons in the village, all living north of Myrtle Avenue. 
In Bedford Village a house was erected about 
1750 on the Kings Highway to Jamaica, at the begin- 
ing of the Kloft Road (later Clove Road). It was sur- 
rounded by locust trees. In this house Major Andre 
lived just prior to his visit to Arnold. After his exe- 
cution his belongings were disposed of by his fellow- 
officers for the benefit of his estate. In a little up stairs 
room, over-looking the Clove Road were kept at one 
time the county records, which, after the Revolution- 
ary War, were taken to England by Rapalje, deputy 
town clerk. The house was for a long time the head- 
quarters of General Grey, commander of the English 
forces, encamped near by, and was the favorite resort 



184 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

of the officers. After the Battle of Long Island, when 
General Howe's headquarters were removed to New- 
town, and garrisons were stationed at Bushwick, Hell- 
gate and Flushing, a brigade remained at Bedford. 
The house was known as the Nicholas Bloom House. 
At one time it was in the possession of Leffert Lefferts, 
and later of the Brevoort family. It was torn down 
in 1909. 

At New Lots, the Town Hall, a two-story frame 
structure, stood near Jamaica Bay, on what is now 
Stanley and Atkins Avenues. During its last days it 
was used as a dance hall, and was destroyed by fire in 
1912. East New York was the largest of the four vil- 
lages in the town; its size was two by one and one-half 
miles; its population was 1,000 in i860; 8,000 in 1874; 
18,000 in 1880; and 25,000 in 1886. Pitkin purchased 
the Wyckoff, Stotthoff and Van Siclen farms for the 
site of the village. In the "Old Stone Building," 
a three-story structure on the corner of Atlantic and 
Pennsylvania Avenues, he published in 1838 the first 
newspaper. The Mechanic. Phil Reid constructed the 
Canarsie Railroad, with a depot on present Van Sin- 
deren Avenue, between Fulton Street and Atlantic 
Avenue. The starting point of the railroad was later 
in front of the Howard House, a tavern on Atlantic 
and Alabama Avenues, also owned by Reid. On the 
corner, across Alabama Avenue, Reid erected a row of 
houses, some ten years after he built his row on Broad- 
way. Eight were on Atlantic Avenue and three on Ala- 
bama Avenue. They were taken down in 1912. The old 
village of New Lots was situated along the New Lots 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 85 

Road. Cypress Hills had a population of about 3,000 
in 1874. Brownsville was located upon the Van Sin- 
deren and Lott farms, and had an area of two-third 
by one-fourth miles. 

New Brooklyn w^as a settlement on the Brooklyn, 
and Jamaic aTurnpike and Hunterfly Roads. 

East Williamsburgh had its beginning along the 
Williamsburgh and Jamaica Turnpike Road. This road 
was built in 1813, and a toll-gate was placed at this 
point. As early as 1814 Daniel Taylor kept a hotel 
here. The Long Island farmers, driving to New York 
City with hay, made this a weighing station. Taylor's 
successors were Albert Vandewater, William Roe and 
Stephen B. and Samuel Masters. The last named, 
brothers, operated the turnpike under a lease for about 
twenty years. Near the toll-gate was their mill. Further 
along the road, and extending on one side on Collins 
Avenue on the Thompson farm and on the other side 
on Forest Avenue on the George Richard farm, is 
found on the map of 1852 a settlement named Ocean- 
ville. 

Calvary Ferry was established a little further down, 
on Newtown Creek, in 1848, by the authorities of the 
Roman Catholic Church. Three floats were operated 
between the Bushwick shore and the cemetery, which 
then contained twenty-nine acres, to transport funeral 
corteges across the creek. In 1853 a regular ferry was 
inaugurated by the diocese between East Twenty- 
third Street, New York City, and the cemetery land- 
ing on Newtown Creek. The distance was two and 
three-fourth miles and the fare 4 cents for foot passen- 



I 86 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

gers. The average time consumed by a trip was fifteen 
minutes. The boats ran from 8 a. m. till sundown. 

At Williamsburgh, the territory of the later City of 
Williamsburgh, was occupied in 1827 by twenty-three 
farms, of which ten extended to the river shore. 
Besides the farm houses, a few buildings were stand- 
ing on the roads leading to the ferry. On the North 
Side were the rope walks of Luther and Pitman. The 
Cripplebush Lane was the only road to Brooklyn. 
The number of dwellings had increased to three hun- 
dred in 1835. The Williamsburgh Road, or Shore 
Road, connected now the village with Brooklyn. It 
led from the Wallabout Bridge Road to the village 
line, and was continued to the ferry through Water 
Street. Houses were standing on both sides of Grand 
and Water Streets, near the ferry. Metropolitan Avenue 
was built up to Wythe Avenue, and some houses were 
on this road as far as Driggs Avenue. A few houses 
were along Kent Avenue and around the Dutch Church 
on Bedford Avenue. Others were scattered few and 
far between. Three rope walks were added on the 
South Side. In 1837 there were two churches in the 
village, one hundred and forty-eight dwellings, includ- 
ing ten stores and taverns; there were also fifty-nine 
stables and barns. A building was erected, on land 
given by the Morrell family for a term of years, the 
upper part of which was designed for the use of the 
trustees of the school district and the lower part 
for a market. Whittlesey's omnibus house stood 
on the corner of Broadway and Summer Avenue. 
His stages ran from Grand Street and Peck Slip 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 87 

Ferries through Broadway, Bedford Avenue and Bush- 
wick Avenue to the Cross-Roads. In 1850 Grand 
Street, Bedford Avenue and South Fourth Street were 
paved and flagged. Lower Broadway had a few 
houses on its north side; part of an orchard still 
fronted upon it. Bedford Avenue, between Grand 
Street and Broadway, was occupied by private houses. 
In 1853 the Mechanics Bank was organized, to give 
the North Side banking facilities. It opened for busi- 
ness in the following year on Grand Street; there were 
then two banks on the South Side. The mayors of 
Williamsburgh were Dr. Abraham J. Berry in 1852 
and William Wall in 1854. In i860 a commission was 
appointed, whose duty it was to lay out a main thor- 
oughfare for the Eastern District. Bushwick Avenue, 
from Evergreen Cemetery, part of Morrell Street, 
Bushwick Avenue again; Smith Street, Orchard Street 
and Union Street (of Greenpoint) to the County Line 
were to be widened and the road was to be known as 
Bushwick Boulevard. Another road was to branch off 
at Wall Street, taking in Beaver Street, Flushing 
Avenue to Broadway, Broadway to Eleventh Street, 
South Sixth Street to Fourth Street and South Seventh 
Street to the Ferry, all were to be widened and the road 
was to be known as Broadway. Parts of this improve- 
ment were carried out. 



1 88 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 

APPENDIX XXVI. 

Bibliography. 

A Sketch of the First Settlement of the Several 

Towns on Long Island. Silas Wood 1828 

History of Long Island. Benjamin F.Thompson 1839 

A History of Long Island. Nathaniel S. Prime 1845 

Historical Sketch of the City of Brooklyn, Will- 
iamsburgh, Bushwick, Flatbush, etc. 

J. T. Bailey 1840 

Antiquities of Long Island. Gabriel Furman 1874 

Documentary History of the State of New York. 

E. B. O'Callaghan 1849-51 

Documents Relating to the History of the Early 
Colonial Settlements, principally on Long 
Island. F. Fernon 1883 

Early Settlers of Kings County. Teunis G.Bergen t88i 

Genealogy of the Leiferts' Family. 

Teunis G. Bergen 1878 

Kings County Genealogical Club Collections. 1882 
History of the City of Brooklyn. 

Henry R. Stiles i867-'7o 

History of Kings County. Henry R. Stiles, M. D. 1884 

Historical Collections of the State of New York. 

John W. Barbour and Henry Howe 1841 
Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York 

State. J. H. French i860 

Annals of Newtown. James Riker, Jr. 1852 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 89 

History of Queens County. Munsell & Co. 1882 

Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings 

Counties. Hy. Onderdonck 1849 

Corporation Manuals of the City of Brooklyn. 1857-71 

Brooklyn City and Kings County Record. 

W. H. Smith 1855 

Williamsburgh City Directory and History of 

Williamsburgh. S. and T. F. Reynolds 1852 

Miscellanies. Rusticus Gent (Furman) 1847 

Indian Place-Names in the Borough of Brook- 
lyn. Wm. Wallace Tooker 1901 

The Indian Place-Names on Long Island. 

Wm. Wallace Tooker 1911 
Reformed Dutch Church of Williamsburgh. 

Elbert S. Porter 1866 
Semi-Centennial Anniversary of St. Mark's 

Church. 1889 

Memorial of General Jeremiah Johnson. 1854 

Memorial of the Golden Jubilee of Rev. 

Sylvester Malone. S. L. Malone 1895 

Our Firemen, Brooklyn Fire Department. 1892 

Narratives of New Netherland. 

J. Franklin Jameson 1909 
Manual of the Reformed Protestant Church in 

North America. Edward Tanjore Corwin 1859 

Aboriginal Occupations of New York. 

Wm. M. Beauchamp 1900 

The Whaley Record. Rev. Samuel Whaley 1901 

Brooklyn's Guardians. Wm. E. S. Fales 1887 



INDEX 



Abraham Jansen Timmer- 

man 29 

Albany 21, 69 

Albert Coertsen 24 

Alsop Family Burial 

Ground 65, 86 

Alsop Farm 65, 86 

Alsop, Richard 65 

American Hotel 113 

Amersf oort 26 

Andriese, David 19 

Andros, Governor 57 

Annunciation P. E. Church 128 

Apostolic Lutheran Church 128 

Armen Bouwerij 19 

Asbury African M. E. 

Church 82 

Ascension P. E. Church.. 79 

Auke Rynerse 47 

Backbone of Long Island. 122 

Backus Farm 125 

Baedel House 29 

Bakker, Hendrik Willemse 24 
Bank of Williamsburgh. . . 115 

Banks 115 

Barent, Gerretse 24 

Barent, Joosten 24 

Bassett, Rev. John 68, 69 

Battle of Long Island.. 61, 101 

Bedford 55, 59, 108, 123 

Bedford Corners. 55, 62, 87, 97 

Bedford Depot 58 

Bedford School 56, 97, 98 

Bedford Section 78 



Beehive 72 

Bennett, Peter 31 

Bergen Farm 125 

Bethel African M. E. 

Church 82 

Bethel Independent Baptist 

Church 82 

Betts, Captain Richard . . . lOQ 

Betts, Johanna 100 

Beyond the Newtown Creek 63 

Bibliography 188 

Block, Adrian 9 

Blockhouse on the Kijkuit, 

68, 69, 77 

Bloom, Nicholas 55 

Boerum House 43 

Boght 68, 69 

Boght Church 69 

Boswijck 15, 22, 23, 24, 26 

68, 77, 121 

Boswijck Church 68 

Boswijck Nieuw Loten. ... 20 

Boudinet, Elias 20 

Boulevard Brewery Hotel 112 

Boulevard Grove 112 

Bourgon Broucard 65 

Bowron Family 50 

Bowron, Watson 50 

Bowronville 50, 79 109 

Bragaw, Andrew 65 

Bragaw, Bourgon 65 

Bragaw, Isaac 65 

Bragaw, John 65 

Branch Hotel 113 



192 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



Breukelen 26, 55, 122 

British Army 61 

Broadway Elevated Rail- 
road 106 

Broadway Ferry 40, 103 

Broadway Railroad Co.... 105 

Brooklyn 18, 20, 35, 38, 57 

58, 68, 78, 122, 124 
Brooklyn and Jamaica 

Road 62 

Brooklyn and J a m a ic a 

Turnpike Co 104 

Brooklyn City Hall ...104, 105 
Brooklyn City Railroad, 

58, 63, 125 
Brooklyn Daily Times.. 75, 114 
Brooklyn Ferry ..37, 61,66, 117 
Brooklyner Freie Presse.. 114 

Broucard, Bourgon 65 

Brown, Chas. S 59 

Brown's Village 59 

Brownsville 59 

Brutnell, Richard 64,65 

Burger Jorissen 64, 65 

Burger's Kill 65 

Burying Grounds 85 

Bushwick ..15, 18, 26, 27, 35 
38, 52, 68, 69, 77, 78, 79, 106 
122, 123, 124 
Bushwick and Ridgewood 

Sections, The 45 

Bushwick, Area 117 

Bushwick Burying Ground, 

73, 75 
Bushwick Church, 67, 69, 
72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 

79, 81, 86, 89 



Bushwick Census of 1698. 139 
Bushwick Churchyard .74, 86 
Bushwick Cornbury Patent 27 

Bushwick Creek 13, 33 

Bushwick Cripplebush .... 65 
Bushwick Cross Roads, 

33, 79, 89, 106, 108 

Bushwick Depot 41, 106 

Bushwick Directory 118 

Bushwick District School 

No. 1 89 

Bushwick District School 

No. 2 90 

Bushwick District School 

No. 3 92 

Bushwick Division of the 

Regiment of Militia of 

Kings Co., 1715 143 

Bushwick Dongan Patent.. 131 

Bushwick Ferry 66, 72 

Bushwick Graveyard, 70, 74, 85 
Bushwick Green, 72,79,89, 108 
Bushwick High School.... 51 
Bushwick, Improved Lands 

in 1706 117, 141 

Bushwick, Indian Deed of. 129 

Bushwick Lane 62, 78 

Bushwick, List of All the 

Inhabitants in 1738 144 

Bushwick, List of Men Who 

Took the Oath, etc. ... 138 
Bushwick, Slaves, 1755... 146 

Bushwick Mill 70 

Bushwick Mill Pond 99 

Bushwick Muster Roll of 

Mihtia in 1663 132 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



193 



Bushwick New Lotts 20 

Bushwick NicoU's Patent. 130 

Bushwick Patent 101 

Bushwick Population 117 

Bushwick Railroad 106 

Bushwick Rate List of 1675 134 
Bushwick Rate List of 1676 135 
Bushwick Rate List of 1683 137 

Bushwick Road 46, 61 

Bushwick School, 

56, 76, 88, 89, 98 

Bushwick Section 76, 78 

Bushwick Street 81 

Bushwick Taxable Valua- 
tion 147 

Bushwick Town Dock.. 70, 72 

Bushwick Town House, 

76, 77, 89 

Bushwick Town Road 103 

Bushwick Village, 

27, 34, 45, 46, 69, 72, 76 

Bushwyck 68 

Calvary Cemetery 17, 64, 65, 86 

Calvary P. E. Church 82 

Canarsee 10, 77, 123 

Cannon Street Baptist 

Church Cemetery .... 87 

Carstensen, Claes 18, 19 

Carsville 108 

Casparse, Johannes 24 

Casparse, Jost 25 

Catjouw, Jean 24 

Cedar Grove 88 

Cells, The 107 

Cemetery Lane 88 

Cemetery near Orient Ave- 
nue 87 



Census of Kings County, 

1698 139 

Charter of Freedoms and 

Exemptions 10, 12 

Cherry Point 31 

Christ Church 80, 82 

City Hotel 113 

Claes Carstensen 18, 19 

Clay, Humphrey. . .15, 17, 121 

Clifford 49 

Clinton, Sir William 62 

Clopper, Cornelius 16 

Clove Road 58, 97 

Coertsen, Albert 24 

Colfax, Richard 65 

Colored School No. 3 97 

Colyer House 33 

Comlits, Jan 23 

Conselyea House 29 

Cooper Farm 125 

Cooper, John 50 

Cooper, Richard 50 

Cooper's Road 126 

Corlear's Hook 10, 34, 36 

Cornells Jacobsen Stille 

(— the Silent) 18, 19 

Cornelius Dirckse 115 

Cornbury, Governor ....27, 52 

Cornwallis, Marquis 62 

Corteleau, Jacques 22 

Covenant Lutheran Church 128 

Covert Farm 125 

Covert, William 49, 50 

Cripplebush, 34, 46, 56, 108, 122 

Cripplebush Patent 20, 56 

Cripplebush Road ..55, 56, 97 
Cross-Roads Settlement, 33, 45 



194 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



Cruikshank, Rev. W 58 

Cypress Hills 45, 59, 60, 88 

Cypress Hills Cemetery, 

87, 105, 125 
Cypress Hills Plank Road, 

49, 52 

Daily Long Islander 114 

David Andriese 19 

Debevoise, Charles 50 

Debevoise Farm 125 

Debevoise House 30 

Democratic Advocate 114 

De Neger ( — The Negro) 

Francisco 24 

Denton Farm 125 

De Smith's Vley 116 

De Sale, Anthony Janse.. 24 
De Sille, Nicasius. . .12, 13, 22 
De Swede, Jan.. 18, 19, 41, 121 

Devoe Houses 31 

De Vries, Titus Sirach.... 100 
Dewit ( — The White, i.e. 

Miller) Pieter Jan.. 22, 23 

24 
De Zeeuw, Jan Cornelissen 24 

Dirck Volkertse 19, 25, 31 

Dirckse Cornelius 115, 116 

Division Avenue 39 

Dongan, Thomas 26 

Dongan's Patent ..26, 123, 131 

Dorp, Het 27 

Doughty, Rev. Francis.... 12 

Dubois, Francis 50 

Duke of York 26 

Dunham, David 90 

Du Puy, Frangois 24 

Durie, Joost 31 



Durjee, Johannes 47 

Duryea House 15, 17, 31 

Duryea, Margaret E 50 

Duryea, Mrs. S 50 

Dutch Churches of Kings 

County 68, 73 

Dutch Colonies 12 

Dutch Kills 64, 65 

Dutch Kills Creek 64 

Dutch Kills School House 66 

Dutchtown 107 

Early Days of Eastern Dis- 
trict Schools, The 88 

East Brooklyn 56, 80, 105 

Eastern District Daily 

Times 114 

Eastern District Fire De- 
partment 112 

Eastern District of Brook- 
lyn, 27, 76, 78, 79, 87, 

104, 108, 118 
Eastern District Obsolete 

Street Names 158 

Eastern District Police 

Court 107 

East New York, 56, 58, 59, 63 

105, 106, 124 
East New York Sentinel.. 60 
East Reformed Church... 80 

East River 11, 64 

East Williamsburgh ...125, 127 

Edsall Farm 125 

Eldert Engelbertse 13, 23 

Eldert House 58 

Engelbertse, Eldert 13, 23 

Engine Companies. . .109, 110, 

111 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



195 



English Kills 64, 77 

Erie Canal 11 

Evergreen 52, 54, 125, 127 

Evergreens, Cemetery of 

the.. 46, 52, 63, 88, 103, 125 
Farmers' and Citizens' 

Bank 115 

Ferries, The 177 

Fire Department 109 

Firemen's Hall 112 

First Baptist Church of 

Greenpoint 79 

First Baptist Church of 

Williamsburgh 82 

First Congregation al 

Church of WiUiams- 

burgh 85 

First National Bank of 

Brooklyn 115 

First Presbyterian Church 

of Williamsburgh.: .84, 85 
First Universalist Church 

and Society 85 

Five Dutch Towns, The.. 26 
Flatbush, 18, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61 

Flatlands 18, 68 

Flushing and Newtown 

Turnpike and Bridge 

Co 114 

Flushing Avenue Railroad. 106 

Flushing Creek 104 

Flushing Stages 58 

Flymarket 66 

Fonteyn, Charles 24 

Fort Amsterdam 115 

Fountain Inn 41 

Four Mile House 113 



Fourteenth Ward Bell 

Tower 112 

Fowler's Bridge 99 

Francisco de Neger 24 

Franklin Hotel 105, 113 

Freeman, Rev. Bernardus 68 

Free School System 88 

Fresh Pond 125 

Fresh Pond Road 62, 126 

Fresh Vleyen 23 

Fulton Avenue Railroad, 

58, 106 

Fulton Ferry 105, 106 

Fulton House 113 

Furman's Antiquities of 

Long Island 73 

Furman's Island 13 

Furman, Wm. Henry .... 50 
General Assembly of 1704 103 
German Ev. Luth. Zion 

Church 128 

German Ev. Reformed 

Church 128 

German M. E. Church 128 

German Ref. D. Ch. of 

New Brooklyn 81 

Gerretse, Barent 24 

Glendale 125, 126, 127 

Glendale M. E. Church 128 

Gosman, William 65 

Gothic Hotel 113 

Gowanis 20, 122 

Gowanus Creek 122 

Grand Street Ferry 105 

Grand Street First Prot. 

Meth. Church 88 

Gravesend 24, 68, 69 



196 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



Green, The 108 

Green Hills. 45, 63, 88, 103, 122 

Greenpoint 31, 54, 72, 78 

79, 89, 108 
Greenpoint Advertiser .... 114 

Greenpoint Directory 118 

Greenpoint D. Ref. Church 79 

Greenpoint, Ferry 106 

Greenpoint Hotel 113 

Greenpoint School 93 

Greenpoint, Ravenwood and 

Hallett Cove Turnpike. 33 
Grever ( — digger) Hen- 

drik Janse 25 

Gysbert, Thonissen 25 

Hans Hansen... 18, 19, 64, 121 

Harmensen, Hendrik 19 

Harrison, James 49 

Hay, Jacob 25 

Hazard, James 36 

Hedeman, Evert 24 

Hempstead Plains, 26, 52, 123 
Hendrik, Barent Smith 

(by trade) 24 

Hendrik, Harmensen 19 

Hendrik, Willemse Bakker 

(by trade) 24 

Hendrik, Janse Grever 

(-digger) 25 

Hendriksen, Jan 24 

Herry 24 

Hessians 48 

Hill School 90 

Hills, The 122 

Hoboken 10 

Holder's Stages 58, 105 



Holder's Three Mile House, 

58, 105 
Holy Cross Prot. Church 128 

Hopoakanhaking 10 

Hose Company No. 1... Ill 

Hotels 113 

Houston Street Ferry... 105 

Hout Punt, Het 27 

Howard Estate 58, 63 

Howard, Major William, 62, 63 

Howard, WilHam 61, 62 

Howard's Halfway House 61 

Howard's Inn 60 

Howe, Sir William 62 

Hudson River 11, 64 

Hulst Farm 125 

Hunter's Point 54 

Huntington 99 

Husted and Kendall's 

Stages 105 

Hutchinson 19 

Huybertse, Lambert 19 

Improved Lands in Bush- 
wick, 1706 141 

Independent Press, The. 114 
Indian Deed of Bushwick 129 

Indian Trail 15 

Inscriptions on Tomb- 
stones in Bushwick 

Churchyard 157 

Insciptions on Tomb- 
stones in Original 

Graveyard 155 

I n s c r i p t ions on Tomb- 
stones in Schenck Fam- 
ily Burial Place 156 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



197 



Italian Row 63 

Ivanhoe Fire Hook and 

Ladder Co 127 

Ivanhoe Park Hose Co... 127 

Ivins House 63 

Jack's Creek 65 

Jamaica, 55, 59, 61, 72, 77, 104 
Jamaica and Brooklyn 

Plank Road 104 

Jamaica Bay 58 

Jamaica Lane 97 

Jamaica Road 62, 103, 105 

Jan Cornelissen de Zeeuw 24 

Jan Hendriksen 24 

Jan, the Swede... 18, 19, 41, 121 

Jan, Willemse 24 

Jansen, Abraham 29 

Jansen, from Sale 24 

Jansen, Tymen 64 

Johannes Casparse 24 

Johnson Family 98 

Johnson, Gen. Jeremiah... 21 

Joosten^ Barent 24 

Jorissen, Burger 64, 65 

Jost Casparse 25 

Kalbfleisch, Martin 89 

Kanapaukah 64 

Kieft, Willem, 

10, 11, 76, 102, 123 

Kijkuit 29, 41, 68, 70 

Kijkuit Lane 29, 70, 72 

Kings County 77 

Kings County Advertiser.. 60 
.Kings County Chronicle, 

The 114 

Kings County Hotel 113 



Kings County Journal .... 60 
King's Highway... 61, 63, 103 
Knickerbocker Hotel.... 113 

Kreupelbosch, Het 34 

Kruispad, Het 33 

Lahr Farm 125 

Lambert Huybertse 19 

Lambertse, Reyer 19 

La Mothe, Pieter 24 

Lane, Ralph 50 

Laterne, Die 60 

Lawrence Mansion 63 

Lawrence's Franklin 

Hotel 105 

Laws Relating to Wil- 

liamsburgh 149 

Leffert Pieterse 46 

Lefferts Family Burial 

Ground 87 

Lefferts Farm 48, 87 

Lefferts, Leffert .46, 47, 55, 56 

Lefferts, Rem 55 

Leslie's Brooklyn Direc- 
tory 118 

Le Teller, Jan 24 

Lexington Ave. Elevated 

R. R 106 

List of All the Inhabi- 
tants, 1738 144 

List of Men in Bushwick 
Who Took the Oath, 

etc 138 

List of Slaves, 1755 146 

Log Cabin, The Old 90 

Long Island 25, 26 

Long Island Anzeiger 114 



198 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



Long Island Family Circle. 114 
Long Island Ferry, 

37, 115, 116 

Long Island Indians 13 

Long Island Railroad ..66, 107 

Long Island Zeitung 114 

Lookout 68, 77 

Luqueer, Abraham 48 

Luqueer's Bushwick Mill 29 
Lutheran Cemetery. . 125, 126 

Lydecker, Ryck 24, 25 

Maiden Lane 116 

Malboneville 108 

Maliert, Jean 24 

Manhattan Beach Rail- 
road . .52, 125 

Manhattan Crossing 59 

Manhattan Island, 

9, 10, 13, 54, 64, 102 

Manor House 30 

Mansion House 29, 30, 101 

Manual of the Ref. Prot. 

Ch. in America 68 

Manufacturers' National 

Bank 115 

Map Showing the Orig- 
inal Plantations 121 

Marechawieck 122 

Mashpack Kil 34 

Maspeth 101, 127 

Maspeth Ave. Toll Bridge 

Co 104 

Maspeth Island 13 

Massachusetts Bay, Col- 
ony of 99 



Masters' Mill 29 

McCormick Farm 125 

Mechanic, The 60 

Mechanics' Bank of Wil- 

liamburgh 115 

Meeker, Rev. Stephen H. 68 

Melvina 125 

Merck's Plantation 45, 46 

Meserole, Abraham. . .31, 111 

Meserole Homestead 77 

Meserole, Jacob 33 

Meserole, Peter 49 

Mespath 18 

Mespath Kills 52, 65, 9& 

Methodist Cemetery 87 

Methodist Chapel 81 

Methodist Epis. Church 

Cross-Roads 79 

Methodist Protestant Ceme- 
tery 50 

Methodist Protestant 

Church 81 

Metropolitan 125 

Meyerose Farm 125, 126 

Middelburgh Purchase.. 61 
Middle Village M. E. 

Church 128 

Midwout 26, 68 

Mill Road 27 

Miller Homestead 41, 68 

Mirror, The 60 

Mispat Kil 11, 13, 102, 122 

Mispat Settlement 12, 22 

Mispat Tribe 11, 102 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



99 



Moffatt, John 50 

Montville 33 

Moore, Thomas 51 

Morrell, Thomas 36 

Most Holy Trinity Ceme- 
tery 88 

Mott, Adam 121 

Mourison, Koert 22 

Municipal Government.. 123 
Muster Roll of Bushwick 

Militia, 1663 132 

Mutual Truck Co. No. 1. 110 
Myrtle Ave. and Jamaica 

Plank Road Co 104 

Myrtle Ave. Elevated Road 126 

Myrtle Ave. Railroad 106 

Nassau River 10 

Navy Yard 104 

Netherland 77 

New Amsterdam, 

19, 67, 70, 77 
New Arnheim ..12, 13, 15, 24 

New Brooklyn 81, 108 

New Bushwick Lands... 46 

New Bushwick Lane 103 

New Bushwick Letts, 

20, 33, 45, 46, 47, 103 

New Bushwick Road 103 

New England 64 

New England Church and 

Society 85 

New Lots, 

56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 105, 108 
New Lots Fire Depart- 
ment 60 



New Lots Journal, The... 60 
New Lots Patent by Gov. 

Andros 57 

New Lots Police Depart- 
ment 60 

New Lots Ref. Dutch Ch. 57 

New Lots Road 58 

New Lots Schoolhouse ... 59 
New Lotts of Flatbush, 

The 56, 60 

Newtown, 15, 17, 46, 52, 

55, 60, 64, 66, 77, 99, 104 
Newtown and Bushwick 

Bridge Co 103 

Newtown and Bushwick 
Bridge and Turnpike 

Road Co 104 

Newtown Creek, 

11, 15, 16, 63, 64, 122, 123 
Newtown District School 

No. 9 126 

Newtown Union Free 

School No. 9 126 

Newtown Fire Department 127 

New Utrecht 26, 72 

New York 26, 34, 58, 83 

New York and Manhattan 

Beach Railroad Co. 88, 107 
Nicolls, Richard.. 26, 34, 123 

Nicolls Map 34 

Nicolls Patent 130 

Noormans 11 

Noorman's Kil, 

13, 27, 31, 34, 70, 72, 102 

North Brooklyn 80, 108 



200 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



North Brooklyn Directory 118 
North Fifth Street M. E. 

Church 81 

Northside, The 107 

Northsiders, The 109 

Nostrand, Garrett 98 

Number of Deaths in 

Williamsburgh 118 

Number of DwelHngs in 

Williamsburgh 118 

Obsolete Street Names in 

E. D 158 

Obsolete Street Names in 

East New York 174 

Oesis, Severy 33 

Office of Records 26 

Old Bushwick Road.. 88, 103 
Old Calvary Cemetery. ... 64 

Old Flushing Avenue 127 

Old Woodpoint Road.. 67, 102 

Onderdonck Farm 125 

Oostv^out 56 

Orchard, The 31 

Origin of Some of the 

Street Names 172 

Original Ecclesiastical Or- 
ganizations 79 

Original Plantations, The, 

18, 121 

Out Plantations 64 

Palatinates 56 

Patchogue 106 

Path to the Kils 102 

Payntar, Abraham 65 

Payntar, William 65 

Payson, Henry 118 

Peck Slip 37, 115, 117 



Peck Slip Ferry... 37, 105, 106 

Peck Slip Hotel 113, 115 

Pennsylvania Railroad... 54 

Percy, Lord 62 

Philadelphia House 113 

Picnic Grounds 112 

Picklesville 107 

Pierson, Henry R 63 

Pilling, James 50 

Pitkin, John R 58, 60 

Plymouth Colony 12 

Polhemus, Theodorus.29, 101 

Police Force 107 

Poor Bowery 19 

Population 79, 117 

Post, William 65 

Powell's Stages 105 

Presbyterian Church of 

Williamsburgh 85 

Press, The 114 

Primary Schools 95, 97 

Provoost Family Burial 

Ground 86 

Provoost Farm 86 

Provoost House 31 

Protection Company 109 

Public Cistern 110 

Public Schools, 

88, 89, 93, 95, 98 

Queensborough Bridge ... 64 
Queensborough Public 

Schools 126, 127 

Rahl, Col 48 

Rapalie, Jaris Jansen de.. 19 

20, 122 

Rapalye, Folkert 65 

Rappalyea House 56 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



20I 



Rappelyea, Jeremiah, J... 56 

Raritan Indians 13 

Rate List of Bushwick, 

1675 134 

Rate List of Bushwick, 

1676 135 

Rate List of Bushwick, 

1683 137 

Rechtauk 10, 36 

Ref. Dutch Ch. of North 

Brooklyn 80 

Ref. Scotch Presbyterian 

Church 85 

Reid, Phil 63 

Remsen House 43 

Rensselaerwyck 64 

Revolutionary War 15, 48 

Reyer Lambertse 19 

Reynolds' Directory 118 

Richards, Paul lOO 

Ridgewood 52, 78 

Ridgewood Depot 106, 126 

Ridgewood Heights ..125, 127 
Ridgewood Heights Ch. 

of Christ 128 

Ridgewood Hotel 127 

Ridgewood Park 125, 127 

Ridgewood Reformed Ch.. 128 
Ridgewood Section in 

Queensborough, 15, 52, 125 

Ring Family 126 

Ring Farm 125 

Ring, Frederick 125 

Rinnegaconck 20, 122 

Rising Sun Tavern 61 

River Indians 10 

Roads and Transportations 102 



Rockaway Footpath 102- 

Rockaway Indians 102 

Rocks lip 

Roman Catholic Cemetery 86 
Roosevelt Street Ferry.... 40 

Roosters, The 110- 

Ryck Lydecker 24, 25 

Rycken, Abraham 19- 

Rycken Gysbert 19, 121 

Rynerse, Auke 47 

Salem 99" 

Salt River 11 

Sand's Estate 104 

Sapohanikan 10 

Satley, Herry 18 

Schenck, Abraham 47' 

Schenck Family Burial 

Place 86 

Schenck Farm 100, 101 

Schenck Homestead 58 

Schenck, Johannes 100 

Schenck, Johannes, Jr... 100 

Schenck, Peter 100 

Schenck, Stephen 50 

Schenck's Mill 86, 99, 100^ 

Schoonmaker, Peter 49 

Schuetzen Park 113 

Scudder, John 99, 100 

Scudder, John 2nd 100 

Scudder, John 3rd 100 

Scudder, Richard B 100 

Scudder's Pond 100 

Second German Baptist 

Church 49 

Second M. E. Church 81 

Seventeenth Ward Bell 

Tower 112 



202 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



Severy, Oesis 23 

Shell Road 104 

Sixteenth Ward Bell 

Tower 112 

Skillman House 30 

Smith, Hendrik Barent. .. 24 

Smith's Brooklyn Direc- 
tory 118 

Smith's Fly 116 

Smith's Island, 13, 15, 23, 45, 46 

Snedeker Hotel 59 

Snediker Farm 125 

Solid Men of Williams- 
burgh, 1847 153 

South Bushwick 78 

South Bushwick Reformed 

Dutch Church.. 51, 78, 79 

South Evergreen 128 

Southold 99 

South Second Street M. E. 

Church 81 

South Side, The 107 

South Side Railroad ...41, 106 
South Side Railroad Ter- 
minal 106 

Southsiders, The 110 

South Third Street Pres- 

bj^terian Church 85 

South Williamsburg-h .... 52 
South Williamsburgh 

School District 126 

Spencer Orchard 63 

St. Aloysius R. C. Church 127 

St. Andrews' Ev. Luth. 

Church 128 

St. Benedict's R. C. Church 81 

St. Brigid's R. C. Church 127 



St. James' Park 125 

St. James' P. E. Church.. 82 
St. Johannes German Ev. 

Church 85 

St. John's German Ev. 

Luth. Church 128 

St. Mark's P. E. Church.. 82 

St. Mary's R. C. Church, 

82, 83, 87 

St. Matthias' R. C. Church 128 

St. Paul's P. E. Church.. 82 

Sts. Peter's and Paul's R. 

C. Church 84 

Staten Island 65 

Statistics 117 

Steendam, Jacob 121 

Stille, Cornelis Jacobsen 18, 19 

Stiles, Dr. Henry 123 

Stockholm, Abraham .... 50 

Stockholm, Andrew 50 

Stockholm Farms 50 

Stone, Susan 49, 50 

Strand, Het 35 

Strey's Hotel 112 

Stuyvesant, Petrus...l2, 13, 15 
21, 24, 26, 36, 45, 77, 78, 123 

Stuyvesant Section 78 

Suydam, Adrian Martense 48 

Suydam House 46 

Suydam, Jacob 48, 50 

Suydam, Peter F 50 

Swamp, The 107 

Swede's Kil 41 

Symons' Four Mile House, 

62, 113 
Taxable Valuation, Bush- 
wick 147 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



203 



Taxable Valuation, Wil- 

liamsburgh 148 

Temple Beth Elohim 85 

Third M. E. Church 81 

Thirteenth Ward Bell 

Tower 112 

Thompson 20 

Thonissen, Gysbert 25 

Thrall, George W 58 

Three Mile House 58, 113 

Tilje, Jan ..23, 24 

Timmerman, Abraham 

Jansen 29 

Titus, Col. Francis' House 43 

Titus, Francis lOO 

Titus, Tunis 100 

T'Maagde Paatje lie 

Tompkins Farm 125 

Town Dock 70, 72, 102 

Town Records 21 

Traphagen, William Janse, 

22, 25 

Trinbol, Pieter Jansen 27 

Trotting Course Lane 126 

Troutman, Dr 49 

Troutman's Hotel 113 

Tymen Jansen 64 

Union Cemetery, New, 

50, 51, 87 

Union Cemetery, Old 87 

Union Hotel 113 

Van Alst Farm 125 

Van Corlear, Jacob 18 

Vanderveer, John 50 

Vandervoort, Abraham, 49, 50 

Van Nostrand Farm 125 

Van Nuyse 46 



Van Nuyse, Abagail 46 

Van Nuyse, Auke Janse.. 46 

Van Nuyse, William 47 

Van Nuyse, William Janse 46 

Van Ranst House 29 

Van Ruyven 22 

Volkertse, Dirck 19, 25, 31 

Voorhees, William 50 

Waaleboght 68, 69 

Walbaut 34 

Walboght 20 

Wallaboght and Brooklyn 

Turnpike Co 103 

Wallabout 56, 98, 105, 122 

Wallabout and Bedford 

Turnpike Co 104 

Wallabout and Newtown 

Road 56 

Wallabout Bay 20 

Wallabout Canal Co 104 

Wallabout Creek 98,104 

Wallabout Presbyterian 

Church 80 

Wallabout School 98 

Wallabout Toll-Bridge Co. 104 

Wallabout Village 56 

Wall, William 50 

Wampum 13, 89 

Wandell, Thomas 65, 86 

War of 1812 17, 57 

Wards 108, 119 

Washington 33 

Washington Company 109 

Washington Hotel 113 

Way Farm 125 

Way, Francis 61 



204 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



Weeksville 108 

Wesquaesgeek 10 

Westchester 26 

Western District Fire De- 
partment 112 

Western District of Brook- 
lyn 78, 108, 118 

West India Company, 10, 

18, 19, 76, 121, 122, 124 
West Riding of Yorkshire 26 

Whaley, Alexander 33 

White Church 51, 78 

White, George 49 

Wilcox 18, 19 

WilHam Janse Van Nuyse 46 

Williams, Col 36 

Williams, Painter 105 

Williamsburgh, 33, 34, 36. 
37, 38, 43, 77, 78, 80, 81, 
92, 104, 107, 122, 123, 124 
Williamsburgh and Cypress 

Hills Plank Road 105 

Williamsburgh and Jamaica 

Turnpike 81 

Williamsburgh, Bank of.. 115 
Williamsburgh, Bethel In- 
dependent Baptist Ch. 82 
Williamsburgh, Brooklyn, 
Bushwick and New 

Lotts Railroad 105 

Williamsburgh Chapel 72 

Williamsburgh City Bank. 115 
Williamsburgh City Hall, 

43, 44, 112 
Williamsburgh Democrat.. 114 
Williamsburgh Directory. . 118 



Williamsburgh District 

Schools 92, 93, 95 

Williamsburgh Ferry 103 

Williamsburgh Fire De- 
partment 109 

Williamsburgh Garden . . . 112 
Williamsburgh Gazette . . . 114 
Williamsburgh, Laws Re- 
lating to 149 

Williamburgh Morning 

Post 114 

Wilhamsburgh, Number of 

Deaths in 118 

Williamsburgh, Number of 

Dwellings in 118 

Williamsburgh, Population 117 
Williamsburgh Reformed 

Dutch Church 81 

Williamsburgh Savings 

Bank 115 

Williamsburgh School Dis- 
tricts 92 

Williamsburgh Schools, 92, 93 
Williambsurgh, Solid Men 

of 153 

Williamsburgh, Taxable 

Valuation 148 

Williamsburgh Telegraph.. 114 
Williamsburgh Times .... 114 
Williamsburgh Turnpike 

Road and Bridge Co.. 104 
Williamsburgh Village, 

37, 72, 75 
Woertman Homestead .... 43 

Wood, Timothy 100 

Woodhull, Richard M 36 



THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 



205 



Woodpoint 27, 102 

Woodpoint Road, 

27, 33, 70, 72, 76, 85 

Wyckoff Avenue Baptist 

Church 128 

Wyckoff, Catherine 49 

Wyckoff Farm, 

86, 99, 101, 125, 126 

Wyckoff Heights 125 

Wyckoff Heights Presby- 
terian Church 128 

Wyckoff House 101 



Wyckoff, Nicholas 49, 101 

Wyckoff, Nicholas 2nd ... 101 

Wyckoff, Peter 29, 101 

Wyckoff, Peter 2nd... 101, 126 

Wyckoff, Susan A 49 

Ye Pole's House 101 

York, Duke of 26 

Yorkshire 26 

Yorkton 36, 37 

Ysselstein, Jan Willemse.. 24 
Zion African M. E. Church 81 
Zweed, Jan De 18, 19, 121 



MAY 25 1912 



